Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has revealed that Paul Pogba is likely to get playing time in Saturday’s Serie A encounter with Cagliari in order to get him ready for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final tie with Real Madrid.
The France international has been out of action ever since picking up a hamstring injury in the round-of-16 win over Borussia Dortmund back in March, but recently resumed regular training.
He was not included in the squad to face Madrid for Tuesday’s encounter, which Juventus won 2-1, but is now ready to make his comeback this weekend.
“Pogba trained well with the ball on Thursday. He could play on Saturday, either starting or coming off the bench,” Allegri said at a press conference.
“I’ll change things up against Cagliari. It was an energy sapping game versus Madrid, so we’ll give others the chance to play.”
“Marco Storari will start instead of Gianluigi Buffon, while Carlos Tevez will be rested, too.”
Allegri went on to stress that Juventus have every chance of reaching the Champions League final should luck be on their side, although he feels their European campaign can already be considered a success.
“We’ll need to put in a great performance in Madrid, an even better one than we showed on Tuesday. If we do well and have an element of luck on our side, we can make the final. But Madrid are an extraordinary team.
“Nobody would have imagined we’d be 95 minutes away from Berlin. Or at least we hope it’s 95…
“It’s important for us to reach the semi-final in a season where the aim was to get through the group stages.”