With 11 games to go in the 2024-25 season, there are only so many chances left for Thiago Motta and Juventus to get a direct shot at one of the other teams they’re competing for a top four spot against. Yet in this 11-game group of fixturss that’s left, Juventus still more than a couple of chances chances to try and either get closer to the three teams in front of them or put distance between the teams that are directly behind them in the league table.
On Sunday night, third place in Serie A is coming to Turin to face fourth place.
Thanks to last weekend’s craziness even before Motta’s squad took the field, third-place Atalanta and fourth-place Juventus are separated by just three points in the Serie A standings. That means a potential sixth straight league win for Motta and Juve and they’re suddenly level on points with the boys from Bergamo and, at the very least, staying even with Napoli and Inter at the top of the table.
While Juventus’ title chances still feel like a relative long shot even with the sudden pulling closer to league-leading Inter in recent weeks, the battle for the top four is very much on. Juve entered Matchday 28 two points ahead of fifth-place Lazio, one of the team they still have on the schedule come the spring. Fiorentina, down in sixth, are still left on the schedule. Same goes for Bologna, too, who are down in seventh.
But it is Sunday night’s game, against the third-place opponent that is very much within striking distance, in which Juventus enter on their best form of the season.
At least when it comes to the simple results in the standings, that is.
Yes, Juventus are still trying to find that ever-elusive complete 90 minutes. But they enter Sunday night’s matchup with Atalanta on a five-game winning streak in Serie A, the kind of form that has them only second to Claudio Ranieri’s resurgent Roma when it comes to points earned over the course of their last six games. Juventus have shown to have good halves, maybe even a good 60 minutes, but that complete effort from opening whistle until the triple blast after 90-something minutes is still something they are looking for.
Against an Atalanta that they know will press them high as they always do and have the offensive firepower to potentially drop a big goal tally at any given moment, Juventus will certainly need more than they have been throwing out there despite the current winning streak in Serie A.
But there’s also this: If you believe there is a “right time” to catch a contender for the top four at, this might as well be that time for Juve when it comes to facing Atalanta.
As much as we talk about the potential of this Atalanta side, things are very much not all good in Bergamo at the moment. There have been the off the field matters involving the future of manager Gian Piero Gasperini and penalty kick controversy that involved Ademola Lookman. On the field, Atalanta’s last six league fixtures have been an alternating pattern between wins and draws, the most recent result coming in a scoreless outing against relegation-threatened Venezia in which they recorded 18 shots and an xG of nearly 2.0 but couldn’t put anyhing past one of the worst defenses in the league.
And that’s before you consider, just like Juventus, all of this comes at a time in which Atalanta
So while we’re in a constant state of wondering which Juventus will show up from both a game-to-game basis and a half-to-half basis, the same could probably be said about Atalanta at the moment as well.
But at this point of the season and what Juventus are trying to secure with a top four finish, how you get the points doesn’t exactly matter but just that you get them. Look at what Milan did against Lecce on Saturday. Look at what Inter did against Monza later in the day. Sometimes the wins aren’t always pretty, but they’re wins — and that’s what Juventus need most right now with 11 games to go and a spot in the top four to try and secure.
TEAM NEWS
A big worry coming into the weekend was that Thiago Motta would oce again have limited options in defense. However, as we actually hit the weekend, it looks like Motta will have four center backs available to face Atalanta. Federico Gatti’s muscle fatigue issues will likely limit him to a role off the bench Sunday night, but Motta will also have Renato Veiga back for the first time in a couple of weeks.
Pierre Kalulu is expected to return to the starting lineup after making his first appearance in a month in the win over Hellas Verona. Who starts alongside him likely depends on Gatti’s condition, with Lloyd Kelly being the likely choice if the big Italian defender is not ready to play from the opening whistle.
The other injured players who will not be available against Atalanta aren’t all that much of a surprise: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal, Arek Milik, Douglas Luiz, Nicolo Savona, Jonas Rouhi and Francisco Conceição.
Juventus are unbeaten in 25 of their last 26 home games against Atalanta.
In a likely response to Teun Koopmeiners coming onto the field to boos from the crowd Monday night, Motta said the Dutchman “has done well since he arrived” from Atalanta over the summer. Koopmeiners’ late goal against Hellas Vreona was just his second in Serie A this season after scoring 12 with Atalanta last season.
Just as the case was against Hellas Verona, Andrea Cambiaso is the only Juventus player who is one yellow card away from suspension. Considering Juve have Fiorentina next up on the schedule after facing Atalanta and the continued limited options at fullback, seeing Cambiaso get suspended for the trip to Florence would be less than ideal.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
A week ago prior to Juve facing Hellas Verona, we discussed a player who has not had many goal contributions over the last couple of months. That trend is going to continue here this week.
And, unfortunately, it involves even fewer goal contributions.
SSC Napoli v Juventus FC - Serie A Photo by Franco Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The way it currently stands, Nico Gonzalez is looking like a player who is very much not worth the very sizable obligation to buy that Juventus have attached to his current (and expensive) loan deal from Fiorentina. As much as somebody like Chico Conceição has burned hot and cold this season, Gonzalez’s performance have been more about what he hasn’t done compared to replicating what he did at Fiorentina last season.
So what about those goal involvements?
Well, let’s just go ahead and take a look at what Gonzalez has done ever since he scored in back-to-back games against Cagliari and Monza right before Christmas.
In 15 appearances in all competitions, 12 of which have been starts, Gonzalez has no goals and two assists. Those two assists have both come in 2025, against Milan back in January and then last month in the victory over Como.
But other than that, Gonzalez has not exactly been lighting the league on fire.
It’s all quite the predicament for Motta and Co. right now when it comes to Gonzalez. He is currently fourth on the team in xG per 90 minutes at 0.22, but he hasn’t scored in 2 1⁄2 months. He’s so far down on the xA per 90 rankings on the Juventus squad that you’d have to go into the mid-teens to find his name. There is a lot to be desired about his current level of play — and that is even before you dive deep into the advanced stats.
That said, Juve need Gonzalez to resemble more of the Fiorentina version of himself with his first trip back to Florence since his summer move on the horizon. With Conceição out and Timothy Weah still getting the terzino treatment simply out of necessity, Gonzalez is going to be playing and playing a lot no matter if it’s Samuel Mbangula or Kenan Yildiz on the opposite wing.
What better way to start a turn for the better than in one of your biggest remaining fixtures, right?
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, March 9, 2025.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3:45 p.m. Eastern time, 12:45 p.m. Pacific time.
(Please note that Daylight Saving Time in the United States begins Sunday, March 9, at 2 a.m. and will not go into effect in Europe until later in the month.)
HOW TO WATCH
Television: TLN (Canada).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.