Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Juventus have no fear entering tough UCL group, says Beppe Marotta

Juventus general manager Beppe Marotta says his side hold no fear, no matter how difficult their Champions League draw looks on paper.

Last year's beaten finalists were drawn in arguably the toughest, if not the most intriguing group with Manchester City, Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach on Thursday.

But Marotta, who was present at the draw in Monaco, said he remains optimistic of the Bianconeri's chances.

"We are Juventus and we should not be afraid of anything or anybody," he said on his club's website. "We will face everybody with the right mentality, looking to get the best result possible. Our optimism arises from a healthy realism and the awareness that we can get through.

"We have history, our list of achievements and the value of our squad, which has grown a lot in recent years, all speaking for us. We need to honour the shirts we wear in the best way possible, also because in addition to the technical values, it is your motivation which makes the difference.

"There's not one easy side in this group, but the fact that it is so even means that the games are going to be complicated for everybody."

Coach Massimiliano Allegri said on Twitter: "The champions who are Manchester City, the tradition which is Borussia Monchengladbach and Juventus' friend Fernando Llorente -- difficult but fascinating encounters, but we will do it!"

Llorente only completed his move to Sevilla hours before the draw was made.

"That's the beauty of football," Marotta said. "Fernando is not only a great player, but also a top person and we're delighted to meet him, even if we will try to win."

Manchester City's head of football administration Brian Marwood said the club seemed to experience bad luck in Champions League draws.

"It's the best 32 clubs in Europe so you have to expect there will be some tough games in there and we do always seem to draw very difficult groups," Marwood said. "But it is what it is, we have to deal with it and we'll hopefully progress.

"I'm sure they are looking at us and seeing the talent we have in our squad, and you'd like to think they are not happy about drawing us.

"We set our stall out to go as far as we can. We're very serious about doing well. The club has had great momentum for the last five or six years and we want to do well. We are ambitious and that is the ownership and everybody in the football club. Over the years we have made a lot of improvements, this is our fifth consecutive season in the Champions League."

Marwood refused to state what the club regarded as a minimum target for manager Manuel Pellegrini however.

"We have our internal targets and they will be kept internal, but of course we are very ambitious; we want to get as close to winning it as we possibly can, of course we do," Marwood said. "We're in it to compete, not just to get through the group stage; it has to be more than that."

Sevilla manager Unai Emery called his side's oppponents' "world class."

"This is the Champions League in its purest state, they are opponents who will challenge us, of top world class," Emery told his club's website. "It is up to us to compete and to be at their level.

"We played Borussia last year [in the Europa League round of 16], and they were at the level of Europa League finalists like ourselves.

"Juventus are a top team like we would like to become, a challenge, no doubt about that. Manchester City, the same as Juventus were already one of the favourites for the competition. This will make us scale up our own demands."

Despite excelling in the powerful Bundesliga, Gladbach are the "minnows" of the group in their first-ever Champions League group stage, and midfielder Granit Xhaka told Sky Sports that he was eager for the challenge.

"I am looking forward to it. Very strong opponents,"  Xhaka said. "We played Sevilla in Europa League. Juventus played the Champions League final, City have bought a number of good players.

"We are outsiders, that's for sure, but a lot is possible still."

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