When Juventus headed into the second leg of their Champions League play-off round tie against PSV Eindhoven last season, they had every chance to qualify for the Round of 16. All they needed to do was avert disaster and then they would be extending their European campaign by another 180 minutes at least.
The problem about what happened last week is that the disaster has already happened, not taken place in the second leg. It was the second half in which Juve completely self-destructed in Istanbul,
seeing all the work they had done to get ahead 2-1 after falling behind early disappear faster than a trick by your favorite magician.
So now, with just about 99.9% of folks thinking that this tie is pretty much over, there’s a second leg to play.
It comes after another disappointing performance in the month of February, too.
We are about to see if Luciano Spalletti’s can muster up something that they didn’t over the weekend against Como: the ability to fight. We saw that fight against Inter Milan in the Derby d’Italia. We saw that fight in the first half in Istanbul as Teun Koopmeiners did the unexpected and scored a brace in a Juve shirt. But ever since everything went to hell and Galatasaray stormed back from a goal down to score four unanswered and take a 5-2 aggregate lead with them to Turin, Wednesday night’s second leg will be the chance to show that the fight still exists no matter what the final aggregate scoreline ends up being after the final whistle sounds.
To turn the tie in their favor may be too much to ask.
Hell, after Saturday’s showing against Como expecting a big response might be, too.
But at this point, there really is only one thing that Juventus know they can do: they can’t play like they have over the course of their last three halves of football. Or really much of the last month. Because if they repeat any of that, then their Champions League campaign will come to an end and it will be done in just as bad of a fashion as it possibly could. And on their home field.
If they come out fighting … yeah, they will still probably lose on aggregate because that’s just what happens when you allow four goals in a half and see your 2-1 lead go up in smoke.
This is a test of Juventus’ character as much as it is to see if they can just make things interesting against a Galatasaray side that also fell to a 2-0 loss over the weekend. Spalletti essentially said that during his pre-match press conference, including a call to the fans in the same stadium that booed the squad before, during and then after the loss to Como on Saturday.
““Some games aren’t just played, but composed,” Spalletti said. “Tomorrow requires the involvement and participation of the whole environment, and we need the spirit of our fans. We know it’s a delicate situation, but we’re asking them to stand by our side tomorrow. With them by our side, we are stronger.”
It’s also going to be interesting to see how Galatasaray play it considering they will take the field with a three-goal aggregate lead and can still lose by two without being in any danger of advancing to face either Liverpool or Tottenham in the UCL Round of 16. Does Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk pretty much just set up shop and hunker down for much of the night to comfortably defend their lead? Or, knowing what they did in the second half of the first leg last week, come out with their offensive firepower that they will likely field up front and try and put the early nail in Juve’s coffin and make it even more impossible to flip the aggregate scoreline?
Either way, the easy thing to say is that Juventus need to be much more like the team that rallied back from going down 1-0 early in Istanbul rather than the one that squandered that same 2-1 lead a few short minutes later. They will not only have to be just that kind of team, but one that’s even better. It will come at a time in which Spalletti is sh0rt-handed at the back — most notably without both of his natural left back options as well as potentially his best central defender after he came off the field injured last Tuesday.
The odds are slim that Juventus advance to the Champions League Round of 16. Very, very slim. But there’s one thing Juventus can do regardless of what the aggregate scoreline says: play like they don’t care what said scoreline is. They can play like they give a damn regardless if it’s 2-2 on aggregate or the reality of it being 5-2.
Play for the pride of the jersey. Play for the personal pride of not being booed off the field yet again.
If they do, then they can bow out with some modicum of pride. But if they don’t, then it’s looking like a winless February and even worse of an overall vibe surrounding them from the outside as they head to Rome in a few days.
TEAM NEWS
- Thanks to their respective variety of cards in last Tuesday’s first leg, Juventus will be without both Andrea Cambiaso and Juan Cabal for Wednesday night’s play-off round decider.
- The big news out of Spalletti’s press conference on Tuesday: Bremer will be available and will be available against Galatasaray. The catch is that many of the predicted lineups on Tuesday don’t expect Bremer to be in the starting lineup on Wednesday. Considering what happened after he left late in the first half last week, this is a pretty good thing to actually have him available again.
- Bremer’s final status for Galatasaray will be assessed Wednesday morning, according to Spalletti.
- Spalletti sounded a little more optimistic about Kenan Yildiz’s status to face Galatasaray, saying “He wants to be involved tomorrow at any cost, and today he trained partially with the group.” Spalletti added that Yildiz “could start from the first minute.”
- The other injured players are the ones we know about already, with Dusan Vlahovic, Emil Holm and (or course) Arek Milik all missing out.
- There is a growing feeling in the Italian media that Mattia Perin will start in goal for the struggling Michele Di Gregorio — which, considering what has happened in recent weeks, is completely understandable.
- Jonathan David is expected to return to the starting lineup after missing the first leg in Turkiye last week.
- Despite the lack of fullback options, most predicted lineups has Spalletti going with a 4-3-3 formation.
- If Spalletti does choose to go with a 3-4-2-1 because of limited options at the back, the existence of Filip Kostic will give the Tuscan tactician an actual wingback to have in the starting lineup. That’s right — Kostic in a crucial Champions League fixture in 2026. You didn’t expect that back in August, did ya?
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
With all of the absences in defense, this feels like one of those games in which Juventus’ ultimate wild card in terms of where he’s going to be playing is going to take on yet another interesting chapter.
Could he be a left back if Spalletti goes into a back four? Does he play as a wingback opposite Kostic if Spalletti goes with a back three? Is it some kind of whacky hybrid kind of role that will be ever-evolving throughout his time on the field on Wednesday night?
Either way, we know one thing: Weston McKennie will be on the field and battling like all hell.
Probably around the time that Juventus players took the fields at Continassa for Tuesday’s training session ahead of their showdown with Galatasaray, we heard that McKennie was closing in on a contract extension with the Bianconeri. It is certainly a reward for the work that he’s put in this season, and certainly a cause for celebration no matter how much the current situation against Galatasaray is far from ideal.
So why McKennie here as compared somebody like say, David, who is likely leading the line against Gala? Well, because we’ve seen McKennie be really, really good in the Champions League during his entire career at Juventus and just because if he is in fact fielded as a wingback then that might be taking away form what has made him so good under Spalletti.
What is one of the biggest things that McKennie has done so well the last few months playing in a more advanced role? It’s been his ability to run into space and then take advantage of it no matter if it’s setting up goals or getting himself free in the penalty area to score one for himself. It’s shown the versatility to his game — both positionally and when it comes to his skill set.
But is that the same kind of things that he can bring to the table when he’s playing as a wingback? To an extent, yes. Not to the same kind of degree when he’s playing further up the field behind the striker or out wide as a quasi-winger.
That makes him all the more important against Galatasaray — which, considering who could start on the opposite wing is that we know at least one wing is likely just going to spam in some crosses and not exactly be a creative force by any stretch of the imagination.
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 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: CBS Sports Network (United States); TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 5 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video USA, fuboTV (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); Amazon Prime Video 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.
