What to watch for as Juventus get set to face Wydad Casablanca

Juventus’ first taste of competition at the Club World Cup can certainly be described as a resounding success, with Wednesday night’s 5-0 win over Al Ain coming as quite a pleasant surprise following an extremely challenging 2024-25 Serie A season.

Next up: the other extremely beatable team in Group G.

Juve will head from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia to face Morocco side Wydad Casablanca on Sunday afternoon with the goal of going 2-for-2 to begin competition at the Club World Cup. Just as the case was in the tournament opener, Juventus will be lining up against an opponent that were predicted to have an incredibly small chance — like, a less than 1%, according to Opta’s pre-tournament predictions — and have the hopes of doing just what they did against Al Ain a few days earlier.

That’s right. Juventus scored five goals in a single game and now we get to see if they can come close to replicating anything close to that when they face a Wydad side — who finished third in the Botola Pro 1 league this season — that opened the Club World Cup with a 2-0 loss to Manchester City in Philly on Wednesday.

Can they do that and head into their group stage finale with City next week having a legit chance finish atop Group G? That’s all TBD. And, as we know, Juventus showed this past season that smaller clubs can sometimes be their biggest impediment to achieving what they want to.

For now, though, here are a few things to watch for Juventus’ second group stage fixture at the Club World Cup.

Can Juventus keep the good times going?

Seeing your club be on the good side of a 5-0 scoreline is always going to be fun. Same goes for Inter being on the wrong end of that, and we will never forget it, but they’re not the topic of discussion here even though I just mentioned them.

Hey, it’s not for everybody, I guess.

In all seriousness, though, Juventus essentially aced their Club World Cup opener and did something that they couldn’t do as much as they should have against much weaker opposition in Serie A. It was refreshing and something we hadn’t seen in quite a while from a Juventus team. And no matter what you feel about the Club World Cup, it is a competition that everybody involved looks to be taking rather seriously. (Look at that sweet, sweet cash!)

So am I expecting another win by five goals with Juve dominating most of the time?

Ha, ha, ha. Of course not! If these last few years have taught us anything, it’s that getting our hopes up may as well be the first sign that disappointment is soon to follow. The hopes of Thiago Motta breathing new life into Juventus? Whoops! The optimism about Cristiano Giuntoli building a title winner at Juve just like he did in Naples? Yikes!

But, with all that being said, you want to see Juventus at least show some of the good things from the win over Al Ain when they face Wydad this weekend. While I have no idea what the final score might be, I feel confident that if they replicate a good amount of things they did three days ago at The Linc, then a second win to begin the Club World Cup

Will there be any kind of squad rotation with only three days rest?

In case you missed the weather report from Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., here’s a hint: it was hot and it was incredibly humid. It was very much a late-June kind of night in D.C. that so many in that area are used to this time of year, but maybe not Juventus players.

It’s not going to be any better in Philly on Sunday afternoon.

At kickoff, temperatures are expected to be around 90 degrees. And while the humidity won’t be as much of an issue as it was in D.C., it’s only going to get warmer as things go on against Wydad.

Doesn’t sound all that great, does it? No, of course not. (Ironically, I will be in one of the few locations in the U.S. that won’t be absolutely cooking temperature-wise. I’m not complaining because summers out West are not exactly cool in the year 2025.)

Predicted lineups are still a thing for the Club World Cup just like they were during the Serie A season. How much stock can we take in them? I really have no idea since this would normally be a time for continental or international tournaments for the respective national teams, but we’re just going to go along with what’s been put out there.

Tudor is expected to potentially make a few changes — which, when you factor in the conditions in the U.S. and the fact he actually has some depth to work with now compared to a month or two ago, is probably the best way to go. What those changes end up being, that remains to be seen, but getting a blowout win and then playing Wydad in your second group stage game rather than Man City allows you to tinker a little bit and manage some minutes.

Tudor did a little bit of that on Wednesday night, but it came after he fielded a rather full-strength kind of starting lineup for who he has available. Just how full strength that lineup will be against Wydad compared to facing Al Ain will definitely be a hint in terms of how he’s thinking about the rest of the group stage.

The Alberto Costa impact

Bet you didn’t expect this to be a potential Club World Cup talking point a couple of months ago. But, as we’ve seen, it is something that definitely needs to be discussed a little bit more.

Or, after two assists in Juve’s win over Al Ain, maybe a lot more.

The more he plays, the more Alberto Costa looks to be a signing that Giuntoli actually got right during his time at Juventus. One of the final moves that Giuntoli made before eventually being ousted after the 2024-25 season, Costa has gone from a player who took nearly two months to make his Juventus debut — and went he did, it was in the ill-fated Coppa Italia exit at the hands of Empoli — to now somebody who Tudor is openly praising for his level of play.

His two assists against Al Ain were quite different but also showed the skillset that 21-year-old Portuguese fullback has brought to this squad. He dropped a great cross in for Randal Kolo Muani for Juve’s first goal, then showed off his dribbling ability and strength to set up Juventus’ second. It was another quality showing for a player who closed the season in a pretty strong run of form once he finally got regular playing time.

Is the Costa at Juventus sample size still small? Oh, you better believe it is.

But the more he plays, the more good things he shows. And you can never be opposed to that — especially knowing that he’s adapted so well to being a wingback under Tudor.

Can the attacking trio keep cooking?

That is, of course, Tudor decides to keep things as is.

Then again, outside of considering any sort of rotation to try and keep his guys as fresh as they possibly can be this time of year, why would Tudor want to after what they just did?

Kolo Muani is expected to keep his spot in the starting lineup ahead of Dusan Vlahovic. Same goes for Kenan Yildiz, who is really starting to show just how much he enjoys being in Tudor’s system. The only change could be Francisco Conceição making way for somebody like Nico Gonzalez, who was an unused sub against Al Ain.

Even if it’s two of the three that scored in Wednesday night’s win that start against Wydad, that’s still a good amount of production that you have in the starting lineup being carried over.

Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

As much as the five goals that Juve scored was the most pleasant of the pleasant surprises, it was just how things looked in the final third that was maybe the most encouraging thing. Yes, I get it, Al Ain aren’t going to come close to rivaling the strongest of teams Juventus could end up playing at the Club World Cup, but it was the kind of win we have demanded from this team for so long without them delivering.

Now, against an opponent like Wydad that may or may not be much better than Al Ain, we get to see what Juventus’ attacking trio can do as an encore.

Knowing that goal differential could very well be the determining factor in where Juve finish in Group G, another win with plenty of room to spare would be quite nice. Heck, another by even just a couple of goals — and the $1 million that comes with it — will be fine, too.

Just take care of business and hopefully the rest will fall into place. That seems like a good way to approach things, right?

How things look ahead of facing Manchester City?

Yes, we’ve said it what feels like hundreds of times over the last few weeks, but we will say it again: the first big test for Juventus will be the group stage finale. You know this. I know this. Everybody knows this.

But to get there, Juventus need to take care of business in their first two group stage games so that they can enter next Thursday’s matchup in Orlando with Pep Guardiola and them boys with the full knowledge of they can finish atop of Group G with a positive result.

That means beating Wydad on Sunday — and hopefully looking good while doing so.

As much as Guardiola’s Man City are very much undergoing the early stages of their rebuild this summer, Juventus are working on their own adjustments of sorts as they continue to find their footing with Tudor now that he knows he’s going to be sticking around a little while longer. So as much as City are a talented squad, they’re going to be a work in progress, with there already being another round of speculation about how much longer Pep will be at the club.

Regardless, they’re a club that just spent €150 million or so and trying to start a new cycle after a disappointing third-place finish in the Premier League. With their retooled roster, Pep has made it no secret he wants to use the Club World Cup as the first steps in what will be a potential return to the English mountain top next season.

Plus, there’s also this: The team that finishes second in Group G will likely meet Real Madrid in the round of 16. While there’s even more newness surrounding Real these days, that’s the kind of potential matchup you want to put off as long as possible.