Matthijs de Ligt is looking forward to facing Chelsea in the Champions League, but warns Juventus must be ‘solid’ to beat the Blues.
The Bianconeri visit the Blues at Stamford Bridge tomorrow, in a key clash to determine the Group H winner.
Juventus have qualified for the last 16 with a game to spare while Chelsea can go through if they do not lose to Juve or if Zenit do not beat Malmö. They will visit Zenit in the last group stage game on December 8.
“It’s great to play these games, it’s good to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge,” De Ligt said at a press conference, as quoted by Ilbianconero.com.
“We must be solid because they have quality, they are dangerous on the counterattack. We must remain calm and use our technique that can make the difference. It’s a tough game.
“Winning the Champions League is a dream everybody has, we try to give our best and see how it goes, we must improve game by game.”
Juventus sit eight in Serie A, 11 points off leaders Napoli and Milan. However, they’ve won all their Champions League games, including the reverse fixture in Turin against Chelsea.
What’s the difference between playing in Europe and Serie A?
“Champions League games are different. Perhaps we have more space for counterattacks, we have fast players such as Chiesa and Morata,” said De Ligt.
De Ligt: 'Rinnovo? Ora non ci penso. Dopo il ritiro siamo stati più Juve' https://t.co/s5i6vXuHyZ pic.twitter.com/6Ixf862V36
— ilbianconero (@ilbianconerocom) November 22, 2021
“We don’t have as much space against smaller clubs, we need to find a different way to score and that’s where we have to improve.”
De Ligt believes the Bianconeri benefitted from the training retreat at the beginning of November.
“We have a different spirit, the breaks were hard and we needed to stay all together to get consistency,” he said.
The Dutch defender will start in Juventus’ defence along with Leonardo Bonucci tomorrow as captain Giorgio Chiellini is out of action with an injury.
De Ligt moved to Turin in 2019 in an €85.5m deal from Ajax.
He has played 87 games with the Bianconeri, scoring six goals.
we need to play youngsters not am imortant game, and de ligt can be sacrificed for vlahovic
as much as I like Chiellini, Juve need to make this guy the 1st choice. He is a player for the future
Not important again we face Atlanta this weekend