Juventus will be looking to maintain their perfect record from six matches played this season, – including a 2-1 Matchday 1 win at Club Brugge – as they host Rapid Vienna at the Stadio delle Alpi.
“This is a very important game,” said the coach.
“We have to play Bayern in our next two Champions League matches so we are looking to get three points here,” said coach Fabio Capello.
Althugh Capello will be without long-term casualties Jonathan Zebina and Gianluigi Buffon, as well as the suspended Patrick Vieira the Juve coach Capello has faith in his squad .
“We have a very big, well-balanced squad to call on,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed by Rapid coach Josef Hickersberger, who has tipped Juventus as possible winners of the competition.
“We are dealing with world-class players here,” said Hickersberger.
“Not only do they have the right players, they have the right coach. They could well go on and win this [tournament].”
Hickersberger finds himself in the spotlight following the Austrian Football Association’s earlier announcement that it hopes he will replace Hans Krankl as coach when the position becomes vacant next month.
The coach is expected to stick to his favoured 4-4-2 formation as captain Steffen Hofmann has returned from injury in Rapid’s 2-0 defeat of Wacker Tirol on Saturday. Markus Katzer and Martin Hiden are still out with knee injuries picked up in their opening game with Bayern Munich.
“We had some very good chances in that game and didn’t take them,” Hickersberger said.
“But we’ll have a good chance on Tuesday if we improve our defending. That is the key.”
