City bid to halt the Juve revival. Juventus Preview

I know it is a well-worn comparison, but if someone had said to me ten years ago that 'in ten years time City will be lining up against Juventus in Europe', I would not have believed them.  Things have changed dramatically since then, at Juventus too, but the prestige attached to the name of Juventus still makes it one of the most attractive sounding ties City could face. 

One person who is all too aware of the prestige of Juventus is Roberto Mancini - a boyhood supporter of the club - so there is no danger that the opposition will be treated with a lack of respect that is sometimes shown in Europa League competition.  Therefore it is likely City will field a full-strength team.  The returns of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Micah Richards and a recovering Boateng may even result in a stronger side than that which defeated Chelsea at the weekend.  Boateng could start at left-back to handle Milos Krasic, although Mancini has said he is not quite ready for the full ninety - so it will depend if he is up to that baptism of fire. 

With Newcastle only 'two days and two nights' (as Mancini described it) after the conclusion of the game, some players will have to be rested either tomorrow or on Sunday - but with the likes of Adebayor, Adam Johnson, Patrick Vieira and Shaun Wright-Phillips on the bench, for example, Mancini has the option of changing faces at the weekend without too great an effect - and should City reach a stage of comfort at any stage during the ninety minutes, then Mancini will have the luxury to think ahead and give some players a rest.

Possible eleven:

Hart

Richards,  Kolo Toure,  Kompany,  Boateng

Yaya Toure,  De Jong,  Barry

Milner, Silva

Tevez

Juventus have had a patchy start to the season so far - a start that laughs in the face of the stereotype of 'boring Italian football'.  Juve have scored 12 goals and conceded 9 in their opening five matches of the season - their latest being a 4-2 victory over Cagliari at the weekend.   Milos Krasic grabbed the headlines with a hat-trick and instant comparisons with semi-lookalike and Juve legend Pavel Nedved resurfaced.  Their only other win came in a 4-0 thumping of Udinese, but these victories have been tainted by losses to Palermo (at home) and Bari.  Put these next to their unimpressive 3-3 home draw with Lech Posnan, and it is hard to know what to expect from Juve. 

They have also undergone mass changes since the disappointment of last year and their unbalanced start to the season perhaps just reflects this.  If their 4-2 victory against Cagliari is a sign of things starting to click (Cagliari were fresh from a 5-1 thrashing of last year's runners-up Roma earlier this season), then City could be facing a very different task to that which faced Fulham in last years competition.  Luigi Del Neri took Sampdoria into the Champions League last year, and he is expected to deliver success at Juve - with the Europa League another chance for silverware for them too. 

They travel to Inter Milan on Sunday, so City could benefit from a straying focus - but with pressure at a high at Juventus, this will not be readily allowed. 

Tomorrow night's game is an excellent opportunity for City to make ground in this competition.  If City can post maximum points from the first two group games then it will put us in an excellent position considering our supposed main rivals would be five points behind.  Juventus come with a huge, if recently sullied, reputation, but if there is one thing that the Chelsea game taught us, it is that our players don't shy away in the face of reputation - and if we can see two examples of this winning mentality in under a week, then optimism is sure to thrive stronger than ever.