Wednesday night may only be the second Champions League matchday of the 2025-26 season for Juventus, but there already feels like there’s a good amount of pressure on the shorthanded Bianconeri’s shoulders as they make their way to Spain to face Villarreal.
Part of that is the opponent. Another part of that is the location in which they are playing that opponent. Another piece of it is who Igor Tudor won’t have available to him in Spain. And the final part is just the simple fact that Juventus are coming
off a third consecutive draw in all competitions this past weekend against Atalanta.
How Juventus played against the boys from Bergamo varies widely. Some think it was more of the same, others — like Tudor himself — have said that Juventus played well regardless of the final score. It’s a total mixed bag, and considering Tudor one of those who feel like his team did in fact play well against Atalanta, and really only lacked a final end product. It’s a game that has him saying things like this: “The team is doing very well. I liked their performance three days ago: serious and of a high level.”
But Villarreal away from home is going to be another matter — and they know that even before you look at the players called up as part of the traveling squad and there’s no sign of your best defender (Gleison Bremer) and arguably your best midfielder (Khephren Thuram). That is the challenge that Tudor faces — how can he get Juventus to both overcome those two absences to two very important players but also get the team firing more in front of goal.
The thing is, Villarreal have had a strong start to the season. Yes, even with a loss to Tottenham to begin their own Champions League campaign two weeks ago. With that, Villarreal will be even more desperate to avoid going 0-for-2 to begin the league phase just like Juve want to avoid coming away with just one point through their first two European fixtures.
Villarreal have the best home record this season La Liga. They’ve won all four of their domestic matchups at the Estadio de la Cerámica. They’ve outscored their opposition 10-1 in those home fixtures.
Plus, you know a certain center back who spent the second half of last season on loan in Turin and now calls Villarreal home has a little bit of insight of how Tudor wants to try and operate.
It’s an interesting spot to be in for Juventus and Tudor. The fact of not winning their first two Champions League fixtures of the season now feels like a real possibility without Bremer and Thuram available on Wednesday night. Being so low in the league phase table if they do drop points again is not a good situation to try and overcome knowing that your next two European fixtures aren’t going to be any easier.
So, yeah, Juventus need to get a result against Villarreal. They need it bad — both to try and go into their meeting with Real Madrid in three weeks in better shape as well as just stop this sudden Thiago Motta-like run of draws both domestically and in Europe. As much as this weekend’s fixture comes with its own unique set of storylines, the simple fact that Juventus are shorthanded against a tough Villarreal team is impossible to avoid.
But hey, maybe Dusan Vlahovic scores 33 seconds in against Villarreal just like he did back in 2022 and things start off rather well. We just won’t talk about the other 89 minutes of that one and hope that this time around goes a little bit better.
TEAM NEWS
- The two big injury absences were known once the traveling squad was announced: No Bremer, no Khephren Thuram on Wednesday against Villarreal. Tudor said during his pre-match press conference that he expects both players to be back to face AC Milan this weekend.
- Back in the squad after missing the 1-1 draw with Atalanta over the weekend is Francisco Conceição, although it’s unknown as to whether Tudor will put him directly back into the starting lineup.
- The only other player out injured that is on Juve’s Champions League list for the league phase is Fabio Miretti, who is still working his way back from the hamstring injury he suffered in mid-August.
- Tudor confirmed during his pre-match press conference that Kenan Yildiz will get the start against Villarreal and that the 20-year-old budding superstar is not dealing with any sort of fatigue.
- However, Tudor gave no hints who else besides Yildiz will start in attack, with the Italian press very much focused over the last few days on the early-season rotation between Vlahovic, Jonathan David and Loïs Openda. “The Champions League is the ideal stage for all our attacking players. I’m happy to have all three of them available,” Tudor said.
- The Italian press thinks that it will be Federico Gatti likely to step in for Bremer in the center of Juventus’ defense, while there are a few other runoffs that Tudor has to decide upon — Juan Cabal or Lloyd Kelly on the left side of the three-man backline, Weston McKennie or Teun Koopmeiners in midfield, and Conceição or Edon Zhegrova as the other attacking player behind the striker.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
There is a question mark in the midfield when it comes to who will likely start alongside Manuel Locatelli. That is the result of a certain Thuram brother not being able to recover from the slight knock he picked up over. theweekend.
So who will it be?
We don’t know for sure, so let’s just go ahead and take advantage of the next best thing when it comes to trying to figure out the upcoming starting lineup — the good old gut feeling.
If you are to believe my gut feeling (and one of the lineup predicting masters in the Italian media), then Weston McKennie will be the guy to start alongside Locatelli in the Juve midfield. For all we know, they could have Koopmeiners joining them as Tudor tweaks his 3-4-1-2 into something that has more bodies in the midfield, but for now the double pivot has limited options — and that’s obviously not a great place to be.
Is it a perfect solution? Of course not.
Juventus without Thuram in the lineup are not as good as when he’s in there.
But when it comes to McKennie and McKennie alone, you know what you’re going to get. And we now have enough of a sample size of his time with Juventus that he just seems to pop up and do something important on some of these big Champions League nights. Considering Juventus enter the night essentially right on the edge of being in the bottom eight following Tuesday night’s action, an unexpected hero certainly wouldn’t be objected to around here.
We’ve already seen McKennie do the versatility thing and play as a wingback and then a center mid this season. That’s pretty much expected to happen these days considering what his role on the roster has been and continues to be. But on this night, Juventus will likely need him to be a midfield engine of sorts. Locatelli will do his thing, but when it comes to somebody with more of a box-to-box impact along the lines of what Thuram does more often than not, that will likely fall on McKennie’s shoulders if he’s the pick to be in the double pivot.
Juventus need somebody to try and step up with Thuram out. This is McKennie’s chance to show (again) that he’s got the ability to contribute to this squad no matter the circumstances.
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025.
Where: Estadio de la Cerámica, Villarreal, Spain.
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 6 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, Amazon Prime Video, DAZN USA (United States); DAZN Canada; Amazon Prime Video (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); NOW TV (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.
