Juventus vs. AS Monaco, 2015 Champions League: Old Lady go away with an advantage

Juventus have looked like a formidable dark horse challenger for Champions League honors in recent years, though they’ve yet to get over the hump. Very few thought Massimiliano Allegri would be an upgrade over Antonio Conte as manager, but he’s guiding the best Juve side yet since their ascension back to Serie A. Standing between them and a UEFA Champions League semifinal appearance is AS Monaco, an impressive surprise package.

Once Monaco figured out that financial fair play sanctions would definitely be levied against them if they kept up their spending spree, they scaled back their operation a bit, ditching their two biggest stars. But they’ve replaced them with excellent young talent, and manager Leonardo Jardim has constructed a fantastic defense that will be confident of slowing down Juve -- especially with the Bianconeri missing their top talent.

Nobody expected AS Monaco to get this far in the Champions League, but here we are in the quarterfinal round watching them get ready to face off with Italian giants Juventus. On paper, Juve should be an easy favorite, but then again so was Arsenal in the last round, and we all saw what happened when Juventus didn’t take Monaco seriously enough.

Monaco have never won in Italy, and, in fact, when these two teams faced in the Champions League semifinals in 1998, they lost 4-1 in the first leg of that tie in Turin, en route to falling 6-4 on aggregate. Juventus will be hoping to replicate that success, but will have to find a way to break down a very good and very determined Monacan defense to do so. They’ve got the talent to pull off the job, but will have to make sure not to leave themselves exposed against a very good counter attack. Either side that wins this match will have worked very hard to do so.