No matter what shape Inter Milan were in, no matter what shape AC Milan were in, no matter who else was on the schedule — Juventus’ trip to the Santiago Bernabéu to face Real Madrid was always going to be the biggest test of the first two months of the 2025-26 season. It didn’t matter what kind of shape Juventus would have been in, too, because whenever you see Real Madrid on the schedule, you know that’s one of the first you circle as one of the biggest fixtures there will be.
That was two months
ago when didn’t know for sure just what kind of shape Juve would be in.
We do know — and it’s not great.
All of a couple of days removed from their first loss of the season, Juventus now look to pick up the pieces against one of the favorites to win the whole damn Champions League come the springtime. That is far from a soft landing after a difficult performance and result just a few days earlier. Instead, it’s another big-time matchup thatIgor Tudor’s squad will have to face in the opening two months of the season — a topic that was a massive talking point during his pre-match press conference ahead of kickoff in the Spanish capital on Wednesday night. But the fact that Juve head to Madrid to face a team still very much in the early stages of Xabi Alonso’s big project at the club he used to play for back in the early 2010s.
It’s a matchup we’ve seen relatively recently when the two teams matched up in the Club World Cup, a game in which Juventus ultimately showed that they were the second-best team on the field compared to the team clad in their classic all-white adidas kit. Even then, it was hard to how good Real Madrid could be down the road considering it was still so early in Alonso’s tenure as their new manager following Don Carlo’s exit to Brazil.
When they meet on Wednesday night, we know Juventus will be shorthanded and without arguably their best player in Gleison Bremer on top of the act they’re not playing well at all. It’s a situation where Juve, based solely dependent on their form, catch Real Madrid at one of the worst times you can.
At his pre-match press conference, Tudor said “I expect a big reaction, because playing here in Madrid should motivate the players.” That may be true. We could very well see a Juventus side that was better than the one from this past weekend against Como. Maybe Kenan Yildiz — who could very well be wearing the captain’s armband at the Bernabéu based on some predicted lineups going around on Tuesday night — does one of his big and heroic Champions League performances like we’ve seen through the early parts of his career. Maybe, it’s hard to truly say with where Juve are currently at — they’re a team that is without their best player, without any sort of positive form and looking like a team that may well have a new manager in a couple of games if things continue to go poorly.
It’s just impossible to escape how Juve have looked ever since they won three straight games to open the new Serie A season. It’s been six games with five of those being draws and now a loss in which Juve only seemed to look worse as the second half went on against Como.
Juventus could surprise us. They could put forward a second half like they did against Villarreal … minus the whole game-tying goal in stoppage. It’s impossible to know what kind of Juventus will actually show up other than one that will be a pretty big underdog against a Real Madrid team that is one of the few teams to win their first two UCL league phase fixtures this season.
And what about Juve?
Well, there’s a legit shot that they’re going to be sitting on two points after the first three games in this season’s league phase. They’re sitting in 24th after Tuesday night’s fixtures. For those who haven’t done the quick math, that’s the final place to qualify for the play-off round come the new year. That’s a place you don’t want to be — especially early on as others are starting to accumulate points while you’re doing the opposite.
Wednesday night feels like an defining kind of night for Juventus in both a good or a bad way. These past few hundred words probably have you thinking it will be the bad. Maybe you’re thinking the same thing, too. But Juventus have a lot on the line against Real Madrid — and it’s probably more than just a big European night at one of the most famous stadiums in the world.
TEAM NEWS
- Juventus have recovered a pair of players after they missed out on the first game back from the international break over the weekend: Edon Zhegrova and Fabio Miretti. (While neither will have many minutes in their legs, seeing how thin the bench was against Como, it will be nice to at least have a couple of other options available.)
- That means the players who are out against Real Madrid are: Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal. (Remember, Arek Milik is not part of Juventus’ Champions League roster for the league phase.)
- However, just like over the weekend, Pinsoglio has made the trip with the rest of the team. He’s not letting some crutches stop him from being with his teammates during these worrisome times.
- Tudor did say at his pre-match press conference that will return to running activities at the beginning of next week following his hamstring injury suffered in the first half against Villarreal.
- When it comes to how Tudor is feeling even though there’s plenty of rumors swirling about his future, the 47-year-old Croatian said: “I have no problems. I am serene. I feel motivated to go ahead.”
- He also said he doesn’t read what the Italian press has to say about Juventus win, lose or draw.
- There wasn’t too much from Tudor when it came to team news at his pre-match press conference. It very much felt like Tudor’s State of Juventus address more than anything as he comes under fire for Juve’s six-game winless run.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
You look at Juventus’ defense. Then you look at Real Madrid’s attack. You look back at Juventus’ defense … and then probably get some sort of anxiety building in your chest and some bad thoughts bubbling up.
There’s some of the best players in the world in one jersey … and then there’s Juve’s defense.
So, naturally, it only makes sense to talk about one of those guys who will be tasked with trying to slow down Real Madrid’s vaunted front line. (Who knows if he can actually come close to doing so …)
Through Juventus’ first two Champions League games this season, Daniele Rugani has barely played any substantial amount of minutes. The unfortunate truth in it is that Rugani’s first European appearance with Juventus in years came in the ill-fated 2-2 draw against Villarreal in which he was a late-game sub to try and lock things up. That, as you probably remember, didn’t happen.
So now Rugani enters Juventus’ return to Spain all of three weeks later now a much bigger player in defense thanks to Bremer’s latest knee injury that will have him out for at least six or eight weeks. Rugani is expected to be part of the three-man backline that Tudor will almost certainly revert back to after going to somewhat of a four-man defense over the weekend against Como. (And we all know how that turned out.)
Rugani, fresh off signing a contract extension through 2028 on Monday, will be one of the Juve defenders tasked with trying to prevent Real Madrid’s star-studded attack from hitting full flight. The likelihood of Juventus doing that doesn’t exactly seem all that high considering how the defense has looked in the handful of games in which Bremer hasn’t played in this season.
Then again, you could say the same thing about Federico Gatti and Lloyd Kelly, too. The current state of Juventus’ Bremer-less defense is not encouraging — and especially so when they’re about to face Real Madrid.
For better or worse, though, we know what we’re going to get from Rugani at this point of his career. He probably sin’t going to put in a spectacular kind of defensive effort and however he plays won’t have you feeling like he might be the future of the Juve defense like a decade ago. He’s going to put in a Rugani-esque shift. There will be some good, there will probably be some bad. This is what we know about him. It’s just about limiting the bad and not having it result in Michele Di Gregorio having to pick the ball out of his net a few seconds later.
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Where: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain.
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. local time in Spain, 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+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video (United States); DAZN Canada; Amazon Prime Video (Canada); DAZN UK (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.
