Unfortunately for Juventus, their Champions League campaign seems destined to end before it really begins.
In the first four rounds, Max Allegri’s men could only record a solitary victory which came at the expense of Maccabi Haifa, who surprisingly returned the favor a week later, leaving the fearsome Italians on the cusp of elimination.
The Bianconeri are now five points behind joint leaders PSG and Benfica, and still have one meeting against both teams before bidding farewell to the competition.
Even if Juventus were to beat their next two opponents, the French and Portuguese only need to pick up three points against Maccabi to swing the ax in our UCL adventure.
But regardless of the final result, our players must do everything possible to achieve positive results in their two remaining group stage outings, starting with Tuesday’s trip to Lisbon.
So here are three reasons why Juventus have to beat Benfica tonight.
keep up the momentum
After earning morale-boosting victories over Torino and Empoli, Allegri’s team is beginning to find the right recipe. However, this winning streak (if we can call it that) is still too young to survive a setback at the moment.
In other words, a loss to Benfica would shatter any momentum or progress made in recent weeks.
Prestige
Even though being eliminated by supposedly inferior opposition has been the trend for the last four years, Juventus must at least get a consolation victory over Benfica.
Back-to-back defeats against the Lisbon-based club would be a devastating blow to what remains of the club’s once-glowing image at continental level.
Alternative plan
While being kicked out of the Champions League group stage is an embarrassment in and of itself, imagine how humiliating it would be if we finished bottom of the group and missed out on the Europa League spot.
Sadly, even the unwanted third position is not guaranteed at the moment, with Juventus level on points with Maccabi.
So let’s try to pick up some points to get rid of the European minnows and avoid additional jokes.
