Celta turn to Juventus after shock defeat in Cyprus

Celta take four days away from league focus to prepare for their Europa League clash with Juventus, at Balaídos for the first time in more than 26 years, following an unexpected defeat in Cyprus to Omonia Nicosia.

Claudio Giráldez will be without Miguel Román, Carl Starfelt and Jones-El Abdellaoui. All three are injured and still need weeks to return. According to MARCA, the most likely plan is to rely on the same call-up as for Elche and rotate again in the starting XI.

Europa as the priority

The squad is driven by the continental tie. Ferran Jutglà said: “We’re very excited about Europe”, and added that the next step is preparing properly for Juventus before turning to Alavés. Aleix Febas urged the home crowd to show up on Thursday night: “We ask you to be with us because, as always, we’ll give everything, and I think we’ll see a very nice game at Balaídos”. Yoel Lago underlined the message: the team must treat this match with the same importance and go for the three points.