Juventus vs Manchester United preview – can Jose Mourinho mastermind a shock win in Turin?

What the manager had to say before the game

In a pre-match press conference, Jose Mourinho confirmed that Lukaku will not feature on Wednesday:

"“[He is] injured. Injured for tomorrow and we don’t know for Sunday [against Manchester City].” [manutd.com]"

When asked whether he thinks the game is an important one for United, the Portuguese replied:

"“It’s a match we want to win of course but independent of tomorrow’s result, our matches against Young Boys and then Valencia are the ones that will determine our qualification. I think we will fight to qualify until the last match.” [manutd.com]"

Mourinho also shared his thoughts on United’s recent form:

"“The reality is that normally we don’t start matches very well, but if we don’t start well and we end it well that’s fine. It’s even good fun for the fans, but football is 90 minutes and especially when your opponent is strong if you give 45 minutes advantage or even 20 or even 10 then you have a mountain to climb. “The good thing is that lately – apart from the Juventus match – we were strong enough to climb the mountain. But because we are speaking about tomorrow’s match, when you play against the super team if you give advantage, it’s very difficult to climb the mountain then.” [manutd.com]"

It’s disappointing to see Mourinho admit that this game isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, as he thinks we could always make up the lost points against Young Boys and Valencia to qualify. He needs to understand that this is a big game for us, the United fans, who pay to watch our team play week in and week out and have been dying to see us beat a top European side for far too long.

Will Manchester United actually go for the win? Or will they just sit back and hope for the best? Although the manager’s words aren’t the most reassuring, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

Catch Juventus vs Manchester United on Wednesday 7 November at 20:00 GMT.