When it comes to the three clubs that are still in contention to finish in fourth place in Serie A, there is one final Sunday night to try and stake their claim to Champions League football. The amount of twists and turns over the previous 37 matchdays are probably too many to recount on the fly, but the final 90 minutes sees Serie A’s final Champions League qualification spot still very much up for grabs.
Two of the three clubs that can finish in fourth place, one of which being Juventus, will try and do so away from home. Two of the three clubs will also try and get wins in their respective season finales against clubs that will be fighting not to finish in the bottom three and potentially get relegated to Serie B at the final whistle.
On top of what is going on Friday night when it comes to who captures the Serie A title, the three clubs going for the top four — Juventus, Roma and Lazio — will also have a big say in the final relegation battle.
All three matchups — as well as those with implication in the relegation fight — will kick off at 8;45 p.m. (20:45 CEST) on Sunday night.
As a refresher, here is how the race for the top four looks from fourth place down to sixth heading into Matchday 38:
Juventus — 67 points
Roma — 66 points
Lazio — 65 points
With how things played out last weekend as everybody played simultaneously, Juventus once again enter with destiny in their hands. Juve win and they’re in the Champions League. It doesn’t get any simpler than that on paper. Roma and especially Lazio, however, need Juventus to drop points and take care of their own business.
Just as many have thought for weeks, who gets fourth place in Serie A has come down to the final weekend of the 2024-25 season. Juventus have one foot there, but can they finish the race ahead of Roma and Lazio? Not so easy as it seems based on what we’ve seen over the previous 37 matchdays.
Juventus at Venezia
Both teams will take the field alongside the lagoon at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo with very different stakes riding on them getting a result Sunday night.
We know what Juventus are fighting for and what they have control over in the race for Serie A’s final Champions League qualification spot. For Venezia, it’s pretty simple: they need to win or else they’re heading down to Serie B next season. It might be the clearest situation of “win and you get something good coming your way” kind of situation we have this season outside of what’s happening Friday night between the two title contenders.
The catch in all of this is that the same kind of result as we saw these two teams play to back in mid-December — a 2-2 draw in Turin — might not even be enough for Juventus to clinch fourth place. It certainly won’t be enough for Venezia to get out of the relegation zone.
With a win over Venezia on Sunday night, Juventus will claim their first away victory since Igor Tudor took over for Thiago Motta as manager. In the four away fixtures since Tudor was hired during the March international break, Juve have three draws and one loss, a 1-0 defeat to Parma on April 23 that is looming very large entering the final weekend of the season.
Venezia, who need both Empoli and Lecce to lose this weekend on top of themselves beating Juventus to secure safety, have collected two-thirds of their 29 points this season at home. They’ve also won two of their last three games at the Penzo
Roma at Torino
Roma enter the final weekend of the season needing to both win in Turin and get help from Venezia to leapfrog Juventus and cap Claudio Ranieri’s extraordinary comeback from his brief retirement with Champions League qualification.
You think seeing Roma overtake Juve in the standings on the final day of the season and send their big brother to the Europa League would bring a smile to every single Torino supporter’s face? Of course it would.
Before their loss to Atalanta in Bergamo two weeks ago, Roma hadn’t suffered an away loss in the league since mid-December — which, as it turned out to be, the last time over the next fourth months that Ranieri’s squad lost against Serie A opposition before said result that was a big help to Juve’s top four hopes.
Torino have been comfortably mid-table for months now and are closing the season in a far from impressive manor. They’ve got one win in their last five games and only three wins since the beginning of March. With Roma having a lot riding on this result, Torino may well be thinking ahead to their summer plans on the beach somewhere for all we know.
Lecce at Lazio
Juventus are not the only one of the three clubs who still has a shot of finishing in fourth place who find themselves lining up against an opponent trying not to get relegated to Serie B.
Lecce currently sit where Venezia want to be — 17th place and guaranteed of Serie A football next season. But, like Venezia, they’re facing a team going for a potential spot in the top four — although Lazio need the most help of anybody to actually get there — and that makes it all the more difficult.
Lazio, like Juventus, probably have a whole lot of regrets about all the points they’ve left on the table in recent weeks. Their last loss, a 5-0 hammering by Bologna, came right before the March international break, but they’ve recorded a draw in their last eight league games since then. That comes out to 14 points earned since the last international break of the season, compared to Juventus’ 15 and Roma with 19.
(Do you want to guess who’s first over that span? Go ahead — it’s Como. That’s right ... Como! Cesc Fabregas and Como have a league-best 20 points from their last eight games.)
If everything holds serve on the final day of the season, Lazio would qualify for the Conference League, with Roma and Coppa Italia winners Bologna heading to the Europa League.