Miralem Pjanic warns the Lyon double-header represents “the most important” games if Juventus are to progress in the Champions League.
The Bianconeri are in France ahead of tomorrow night’s match at Parc OL, and will welcome the Bosnian’s former side to Turin in the next round of fixtures.
“It’s the most important, because these are the third and fourth games,” Pjanic admitted in the pre-match Press conference.
Miralem Pjanic warns the Lyon double-header represents “the most important” games if Juventus are to progress in the Champions League.
The Bianconeri are in France ahead of tomorrow night’s match at Parc OL, and will welcome the Bosnian’s former side to Turin in the next round of fixtures.
“It’s the most important, because these are the third and fourth games,” Pjanic admitted in the pre-match Press conference.
“It can be decisive in terms of the two roads you can take, making it a bit easier to progress or not. Because of that, this double-header could be much more important.
“We’re preparing well, and after that we’ll see. The most important thing is to pick up a positive result tomorrow and I’m convinced we can do that.
“We’ll try and take all three points, which would be a big step forward in terms of reaching the next round.”
As a former star in Ligue 1, Pjanic was asked if the Champions League is more difficult for French sides.
“I think you could definitely say that in the Champions League, which has hard and selective games, that French football has probably gone through a difficult period, if we leave Paris Saint-Germain to one side.
“Of course there are also financial reasons which would explain this, and Paris Saint-Germain have a lot of experience, which gives them a bit of an advantage.
“Thanks to this new stadium though, Lyon will improve. The President [Jean-Michel Aulas] has very clear ideas in that regard.”
The former Roma midfielder is known as a free-kick specialist, but Paulo Dybala might be challenging him for them after his goal against Udinese on Saturday… “If there’s a free-kick we’ll see which side it’s on,” Pjanic smiled.
“Dybala hits them very well, we’ll see who feels good about taking it, who is on the pitch – there’s no problem.
“If someone feels that they can take the ball for this one, then there might be another one later, it’s no problem.
“The important thing is that we have good players, and good free-kick takers in these situations.”