Juventus will face Villarreal in the Champions League this evening and the Spanish side’s manager is refusing to accept that his team can actually beat the Bianconeri.

They held Juve to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Spain and have already beaten Atalanta in Italy in the competition this season.

Everyone knows Juve is favourite, but the UCL is a competition where upsets are rampant and the Bianconeri have to be careful with their Spanish opponents in this game.

They won the Europa League last season and have continued to impress in the UCL in this campaign.

But Emery claims Juve are favourites and his team will just do their best to prove they deserve to be in the competition.

He said via Football Italia: “We proved that we are able to compete and react, equalising in the first leg, showing our quality.

“That does not change the fact Juventus are one of the candidates to win the Champions League, for their history and what they represent. We want to have our say and try to prove we deserve to be here. We come to Turin intent on being protagonists.”

Juve FC Says

Emery is an experienced manager and the Spaniard knows he needs his players to play under less pressure.

This is why he is making Juve the favourites. However, the Bianconeri are also experienced enough to know he is just playing mind games.

We can trust our players to ignore the “underdogs” tag and play them as they will do if it was a bigger club.