Wounded Juve face character test against B. Munich

Juventus, who suffered their first domestic defeat at the weekend with their 3-1 loss to Milan, face the only other team to have beaten them this season when they host Bayern Munich in the Champions League today.

Bayern lead Group A after their 2-1 victory over Fabio Capello's side in the last round of games and while Juve, with six points from victories over Club Bruges and Rapid Vienna, are still on course for the knockout stage, they will be keen to avoid another setback.

They will also be keen to keep another clean sheet at home in the competition. If they do that they would stretch their record to seven home games without conceding a goal - equalling the record they themselves set between November 2001 and February 2003 and later equalled by Deportivo.

A record season start of nine straight wins in Serie A along with their positive opening to their European campaign had created an air of invincibility around Juventus but they were brought down to earth in brutal fashion by Milan on Saturday.

Juve trailed 3-0 at half-time and although French forward David Trezeguet pulled a goal back they were never in with a real chance.

But, as Capello pointed out after the match, nor did his team fall to pieces under the shock of the three goals and he will be hoping that such a level-headed response yields better results at the Delle Alpi.

The Juventus coach is likely to have Christian Abbiati back in goal after he missed the clash at the San Siro with a knee injury.

Abbiati, who is standing in for long-term injury victim Gianluigi Buffon, was replaced by Antonio Chimenti against Milan and the third-choice keeper had a shaky night.

Capello is unlikely to make any drastic changes to his line-up but Saturday's defeat will leave him pondering some of his selection options.

In attack Alessandro Del Piero, who began on the bench against Milan, will hope to start against the Germans but that would mean Capello having to leave out either Trezeguet or Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Another player in contention is Romanian Adrian Mutu who has impressed of late but whose chances of featuring on the right are limited by the presence of Mauro Camoranesi.

Bayern suffered a big injury setback at the weekend with news that Paraguay striker Roque Santa Cruz will be out for around six months with cruciate knee ligament damage.

Santa Cruz had scored in each of his three previous league games and would almost certainly have started against Juventus.

His absence is particularly worrying for coach Felix Magath given that leading striker Roy Makaay is out of form.

Makaay has not scored since August 27 and his performance in Saturday's 2-1 win away to Cologne suggested the goal drought is not about to end any time soon.

Bayern, who also have Bixente Lizarazu and Owen Hargreaves injured, were lucky to come away from Cologne with a win that kept them two points clear at the top of the Bundesliga.

The German champions played the game almost at walking pace and had to come from behind to sneak victory with set-piece goals from Lucio and Michael Ballack.

"We didn't turn in the sort of performance I was expecting," said Magath. "We were lucky to come away with a win.

"We weren't resolute enough and that has to change against Juventus."

Today on TV - 8.45 p.m.

Lille vs Manchester United - live on TVM.
Juventus vs Bayern Munich - live on Italia Uno.