It was nearly a year ago when Juventus and Benfica met on the final day of the new-look Champions League league phase, with a whole lot of people having one screen fixed on the game in front of them and another
on the live table with everybody playing at the same time. Juve needed a win to get a much more favorable draw in the play-off round — which, as we all remember, didn’t happen and the European run came to an end shortly therafter.
While Wednesday night doesn’t mark the end of the league phase just yet, a familiar foe is coming back to Turin.
The penultimate fixture for Juventus of the UCL league phase sees Benfica and old “friend” Jose Mourinho roll into Turin with the Bianconeri on the cusp of potentially wrapping up a spot in the knockout phase. Sitting on nine point through their first six league phase fixtures, Juventus need to win one of their matchups against Benfica on Wednesday night or on the road against Monaco next week to sit in a good place when it comes to qualification for the play-off round.
If 11 points was the target for clubs at the bottom of the top 24 last season, then one more win would put Luciano Spalletti’s squad on 12 points. And if that win to put Juve on 12 points comes against Benfica, then it will make the final matchday of the league phase in the Principality just that much more interesting with how tightly packed things were entering this week’s action outside of the top couple of teams.
Sure makes for a likely tense situation at the J Stadium considering the last thing Spalletti wants to see happen is leaving qualification for the play-off round to the final day of the league phase.
Then again, Juve are facing a Benfica that are very much right on the outside looking in of the top 24.
With two straight wins, Benfica somehow actually has a chance to sneak into the play-off round. They’re no longer sitting close to the bottom of the league phase table. Instead, they enter Matchday 7 right outside of the top 24 — and as we know, things can change wildly fluctuate over these final two weeks before the play-off round draw arrives.
Domestically, are unbeaten in Liga Portugal this season, with their only losses coming in cup competitions. Since the start of December, Benfica have won four of six league fixtures, with their only two losses over that span coming in the Taça de Portugal quarterfinals against Porto and the Taça da Liga (Portuguese League Cup) against Braga.
Then again, it’s not like Juventus are coming off the best of results (or performances) over the weekend.
Saturday night’s loss to Cagliari was the kind of result and performance that Juventus certainly need to avoid repeating against Benfica and/or Monaco. They do that and they’re likely wrapping up their spot in the play-off round sooner rather than later. But Benfica, even with their struggles earlier on in the league phase that then saw Mourinho return to managing in Portugal, have taken advantage of their own European schedule getting a little more friendly just as Juventus have, beating Ajax and then stunning Napoli to get out of the Champions League cellar. They know that another loss could very well put a big dent in their remaining hopes to sneak into the play-off round, thus causing them to be even more on the front foot than Spalletti said he expects them to be.
Benfica also have a bit of history on their side against the Bianconeri, winning all of their last three meetings with Juventus in Europe.
“I expect to see the same things I see every day, they enjoy developing in training and I enjoy watching them,” Spalletti said during Tuesday’s pre-match press conference. “Portuguese teams are all quite similar, Sporting has something similar to Benfica and if you don’t make the right decisions, you risk being trapped and the game will resemble the one against Sporting. … We are strong and we have a precise idea of how to play the game. The spotlight is more intense in Champions League matches and we hope to be worthy of that spotlight.”
Juventus have been able to turn their Champions League campaign around with wins over Bodø/Glimt — you know, the team that just crushed Manchester City in the frigid Arctic Circle — and Pafos within a couple of weeks of each other. Now, it’s about getting a win that both puts them in the knockout round and then gets them a much better potential draw then what happened last season under Thiago Motta. If Juve continue to hang around the low teens and 20s in the standings, then it won’t be looking so good. But if they can close the UCL league phase in strong fashion, then it’s certainly possible they might even push the top eight because Matchday 7 started with just four points separating third place and 20th.
“We are on the right track because the team is curious and constantly looking for new ideas,” Spalletti said. “I always say that you have to improve your skills to score goals, to have the next pass already in mind before you receive the ball.”
For a team that just got shut out by one of the statistically worst teams in Serie A just over the weekend, Juventus will have to be a lot better to ensure that they come away with three points on Wednesday night.
TEAM NEWS
- During his pre-match press conference, Spalletti didn’t give too many hints — or any — when it came to any potential changes to his starting lineup when Juve face Benfica.
- There also weren’t many fitness updates regarding specific players, so it’s likely that the same players who were available over the weekend against Cagliari will be the same when Spalletti names his squad to face Benfica come Wednesday morning.
- The small group of players out due to injury for Juventus includes: Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani and Arek Milik, who is not on the Bianconeri’s squad list for the league phase.
- Spalletti did say in an interview with Sky Italia that he and the rest of the Juventus coaching staff will have to be careful with Francisco Conceição and his minutes so that he doesn’t have a relapse of the muscle injury that caused him to miss a couple of weeks earlier this month.
- Juventus have not won three straight games in the Champions League since 2021.
- Mourinho has won just one of his last six away fixtures against Juventus, with that lone win coming during his time with Manchester United in 2018.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
A Portuguese squad is coming to Turin. Juventus just so happen to have a Portuguese player on the roster, and he could very well be returning to the starting lineup on Wednesday night.
So do you follow where I’m going? Of course you do.
It still remains to be seen whether Conceição will actually be in the starting lineup considering what Spalletti had to say about his desire to not push him physically at the moment and just the simple fact that Fabio Miretti has been very good over the last few weeks while the diminutive Portuguese winger was out injured.
But if Conceição does end up coming back into the squad from the opening whistle, it’s pretty safe to say that Juventus will need the good version of him if they want to have a good chance of actually beating Benfica for the first time in a few years.
Juventus come out of the Cagliari game with the same issues that we’ve harped on for a lot of the 2025-26 season: the chance creation was there, but ultimately they couldn’t convert the chances that they did have. (And it’s not like the overall quality of those chances were consistently great to begin with …)
Conceição, when on, can be the compliment to Kenan Yildiz’s incredible playmaking ability that Juventus desperately need. For as well as Miretti has played of late, Conceição is just a completely different kind of player — and that’s not breaking news by any means.
So no matter if he’s in the starting lineup or an impact sub off the bench in the second half, Juventus need Conceição to be Conceição. You know, the one where he can make opposing defenses look silly whenever he’s got the ball at his feet. That one should come back more often. Surely Spalletti would like that — as would all of us.
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.
Where: Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 8 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3 p.m. Eastern time, 2 p.m. Central time, 12 p.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: TNT Sports 5 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); Amazon Prime Video (United Kingdom); Amazon Prime Video (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
