Douglas, Pjanic and Danilo doubtful for Atlético game
The three Juventus players all limped out of the 0-0 draw at Fiorentina and will join Giorgio Chiellini and Mattia de Sciglio in the Italians' treatment room.
Juventus left two points on the turf at the Artemio Franchi on Saturday afternoon after a 0-0 draw with Fiorentina, which gives Inter Milan the opportunity to move to the top of the table if they are victorious at home to Udinese later in the day.
However, Maurizio Sarri has other matters to attend to after a spate of injuries in Florence has left the Juve boss facing a mini-crisis ahead of the Champions League fixture against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday night.
Douglas Costa, Miralem Pjanic and former Real Madrid full back Danilo all limped out of the game with muscle injuries and will leave Sarri with a bit of a conundrum when Juve visit the Metropolitano with key defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Mattia de Sciglio also both injured.
Four central defenders and one full back fit for Atlético
Juve have a deep squad, as both Emre Can and Mario Mandzukic can attest, but it is rather top heavy and in the absence of Chiellini, De Sciglio and Danilo, Sarri will have only Matthijs de Ligt, Leonardo Bonucci, Daniele Rugani, Merih Demiral and Alex Sandro to choose from: four central defenders and a left back. That may well lead Sarri to change his system to three at the back, which would hand Diego Simeone an interesting option with several wide men available to the Atlético boss.
Still, Juve have fond memories of last season’s competition when they eliminated Atlético courtesy of a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick in the return leg in Turin and the Portuguese does enjoy a game against his old cross-city foes.
Atlético and Juve have been drawn together in D alongside Bayer Leverkusen and Lokomotiv Moscow for this season’s competition.