Chelsea Vs. Juventus, UEFA Champions League: Scouting the Old Lady

With time running out before kickoff of today's Champions League match between Chelsea and Juventus, but there's still plenty of time to enjoy an in-depth scouting report on the Old Lady. After all, it's going to be a long few minutes until kickoff and reading intelligently written information connected to the match is clearly the best way to pass the time.

Our Chelsea blog, We Ain't Got No History, has an excellent and detailed look at their opponent for today. Everything from the manager, the players, the tactics and more are analyzed in detail. Just because Antonio Conte is serving a ten-month ban for his involvement in the latest Italian match fixing scandal, doesn't mean he's not influencing Juventus. You'll also get a breakdown of Juve's fairly unorthodox 3-5-2 formation that could cause some issues for the Blues.

What might not be so familiar is Juve's formation: it's a fairly unorthodox 3-5-2, with three central defenders covering for the enterprising runs of the two wing backs, generally the duo of Stephan Lichtsteiner and Kwadwo Asamoah. In the centre of the park Andrea Pirlo is flanked by a hard working pairing of Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio, while up front the favoured combination for this season has been Sebastian Giovinco and Mirko Vucinic. In goals is veteran captain Gianluigi Buffon. On paper, it's a strong team, and on the pitch, it's a strong team, but there are definitely flaws within this side, most notably the three centre backs - Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci aren't the world's worst defenders, but if exposed properly they can be left totally out at sea, as was the case against Genoa on Sunday.

One thing is for certain, no matter what happens at Stamford Bridge, you'll be prepared to enjoy it and be able to impress all your friends with you're expert analysis of Juve and their tactics as the match unfolds. We won't tell them your secret though, we promise.