Juventus vs Maccabi Haifa

It’s a ‘do or die’ situation for perennial Champions League campaigners Juventus as they welcome Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa to the Allianz Stadium in a must-win Group H fixture.

Juventus’ bid to avoid their first Champions League group elimination since 2013/14 has reached the breaking point. After losing their opening two Group H fixtures to PSG and Benfica, ‘I Bianconeri’ are at risk of missing out on a top-two finish in case they fail to claim all six points from back-to-back meetings with Haifa. September was not pleasant for Massimiliano Allegri, who saw his side go winless in all five competitive games last month (D2, L3). But the international break offered the Italian manager salvation as the record-time Serie A champions came out stronger and dismantled fellow domestic rivals Bologna 3-0 at the weekend. Yet coming into this matchday, Juventus have lost three successive Champions League matches and are staring down the barrel of a four-match losing streak in the competition for the first time in the club’s history.

Back to the Champions League group phase for the first time since 2009/19, Maccabi Haifa look destined to bow out of the competition before matchday six. After a 2-0 defeat at Benfica in their Group H curtain-raiser, Haifa wasted a 1-0 lead as PSG took them down 3-1 in Israel. The visitors’ hopes of miraculously battling their way back into contention for a top-two finish are far-fetched as they head to Italy searching for their first-ever Champions League win on foreign soil after seven failed attempts (D1, L6). Furthermore, the ‘Greens’ have been winless in three of their five European encounters against Serie A sides (W1, D1, L3) and have lost their last two competitive away games by 2+ goals ‘to nil.’