Juventus vs Chelsea Preview: xG, shots per 90, touches in the area and more – what do the stats say?

Chelsea will be travelling to Turin for their second Group H game of the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League campaign against Juventus at their Allianz Stadium. Both teams started their campaign positively, with The Blues winning 1-0 against Zenit at home, while The Old Lady travelled to Sweden for a 3-0 win over Malmo. Malmo will be travelling to Russia to face Zenit St. Petersburg in the other Group H game this midweek.

The Blues have had a great start to their 2021/22 season under Thomas Tuchel, and look to be a formidable squad with enough depth to compete on all fronts in all various competitions they will be a part of this season. They lost to Man City 1-0 at home on the weekend, which was their first defeat of the season. They have taken 13 points from their first six games, and are just one point behind league leaders, Liverpool, at the moment.

Juventus, on the other hand, have had a weak start to their season, especially in the league. They have only won two and drew two of their first six league games, and are currently on 9th with eight points in the Serie A standings. The positive for Massimiliano Allegri is that his team have now improved their form, being unbeaten in the last four games, winning three. They did not start the season well as they had only one point from their first three league games.

Looking at the stats so far in one game in the Champions League, Juventus created the second-highest xG in the entire Champions League that week with 3.01 while their opponents for Wednesday only created an xG of 0.69 in their game. The Old Lady were able to three goals away from home on the opening day of the UCL season, while Chelsea could only clinch a goal late in the second half to come out with the three points.

The Blues took a total of 12 shots against Zenit at Stamford Bridge, with only two on target and one Romelu Lukaku goal. Allegri’s Juventus on the other hand took a total of 15 shots in the game, and had the joint-highest shots on target in the UCL so far with eight, and scored thrice. Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea were more threatening as they had a lot of possession in the game and the third-highest number of touches inside the penalty box with 28. The Old Lady are also not far behind, with 24 touches inside the penalty box, and of course more shots on target and three goals to show for it.

The above viz is the shot map of Chelsea against Zenit on the opening day of the 2021/22 UCL season. They took most of their shots from either inside the penalty box or from the edge of the box. They also had a few shots from outside the box but were not able to hit the target as often as to the liking of Thomas Tuchel.

Juventus’ shot map against Malmo shows that they took most of their shots from inside the penalty area, with most of them taken from the left side. They took a total of 15 shots in the game, hitting the target an impressive eight times and scoring three goals. They will definitely be a threat to Chelsea on Wednesday night, as Chelsea will look to start strong in their defence of the UEFA Champions League title.

Juventus’ Predicted Starting XI (4-4-2): GK:Wojciech Szczesny LB: Alex Sandro, CB: Leonardo Bonucci, CB: Mathias de Ligt, RB: Danilo, LW: Federico Bernardeschi, RCM: Rodrigo Bentacur, LCM: Manuel Locatelli, RW: Federico Chiesa, RCF: Alvaro Morata, LCF: Moise Kean

(Injuries: Arthur, Paolo Dybala, Kaio Jorge)

Chelsea’s Predicted Starting XI (3-4-3): GK: Edouard Mendy, RWB: Cesar Azpilicueta, RCB: Andreas Christensen, CB: Thiago Silva, LCB: Antonio Rudiger, LWB: Marcus Alonso, CDM: N’Golo Kante, CDM: Mateo Kovacic, LW: Timo Werner, ST: Romelu Lukaku, RW: Kai Havertz

(Injuries: Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount, Jorginho, Reece James)