As Juventus get set to play their final 90 minutes of the 2024-25 season, things couldn’t be any more simple for Igor Tudor and his squad.
You win and you get in the Champions League next season.
You mess around, then you’re taking destiny out of your own hands and potentially leaving things up to chance.
These are the two scenarios that a still-banged up Juventus squad take with them to Venice for a season finale that has a whole lot riding on it for both the Bianconeri and Venezia on Sunday night. Juventus enter the final matchday of the season with the slight advantage for Serie A’s final Champions League spot, holding a one-point advantage over Roma in fifth and two-point lead over sixth-place Lazio. But, at the same time, Juve will be lining up against a Venezia team that will have one last chance to fight for their Serie A lives, although they need some other results to go their way as well if they want to stay in Italy’s top flight for another season.
And you better believe that, no matter how much Juventus control their own destiny to qualify for the Champions League, there will be plenty of scoreboard watching from this in the stands and those on their couches just like last weekend.
So while so many of us can still think back to all of the points of the season in which points were dropped that could have prevented this kind of situation on the final day of the campaign, that’s all a moot point now. Juventus have one thing in front of them that they need to do — and that’s to win to ensure a Champions League payday that is reportedly worth around at least €60 million and will probably allow them to not have some sort of fire sale this summer.
But they have to get there first.
The way they do that is to beat Venezia and not tempt fate with one last instance of dropped points during this incredibly frustrating season.
Venezia can stake claim to one of the 16 (!!) draws Juventus have recorded this season. And if not for Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty in the 94th minute, then this season-ending matchup would look even more interesting considering what both clubs would be sitting on points wise. But it showed that Venezia, with Eusebio Di Francesco and his second straight relegation battle, can give Juventus trouble if the Bianconeri mess around.
And it’s well established that Venezia will be trying to avoid what happened to Di Francesco’s Frosinone just one year ago. (Frosinone, by the way, a part of the craziness going on in the Serie B relegation playoff. Gotta love Italian football always giving us some sort of off-field drama, right?)
Venezia have, to their credit, been a much better team at home compared to what they’ve done away from the Penzo this season. Twenty of the 29 points Venezia have recorded this season have come alongside the lagoon. Venezia’s goal differential at home (minus-4) is much better than how they’ve done away from Venice (minus-19) this season. So as much as they’re a team that could very well end up getting relegated on Sunday night, they’re not exactly a complete lost cause at home this season along the lines of last-place Monza.
Look no further than Venezia taking advantage of a Fiorentina squad that was just a couple of days removed from their Conference League elimination to upset La Viola 2-1 two weeks ago. If Venezia hadn’t won that game, they would have already been relegated.
So the bottom line is that Juventus won’t have things easy on Sunday night. Far from it really. This is the kind of matchup that has so much riding on it for both sides that it’s hard to truly predict. Venezia are playing for their Serie A lives — and that’s a dangerous thing for Juve to try and totally slow down.
Or, we can just go with how Tudor said he will approach things once he arrives at the Penzo on Sunday night: “At 19.45, it’s a matter of life or death, everything else is irrelevant.”
TEAM NEWS
Pierre Kalulu will be serving the second game of his two-match suspension for his “violent conduct” in the draw against Lazio.
More positive suspension news is that Khephren Thuram and Nicolo Savona are back after being forced to sit out last weekend’s win over Udinese.
The big injury worry over the last couple of days involved Renato Veiga and Weston McKennie, who both trained away from the group on Friday. Thankfully, as Tudor noted at his pre-match press conference, both players were able to train with the group on Saturday and should be good — although maybe not in the starting lineup — to face Venezia.
Also back in the squad: Teun Koopmeiners, who had missed the last five games with an Achilles injury he suffered back in mid-April. Koopmeiners trained with the group on Saturday after being limited to individual work for much of the week.
Tudor described Federico Gatti’s status as “the same as in recent weeks,” which hints at the hard-nosed Italian defender likely being limited to coming off the bench against Venezia.
That means the only other players who will be unavailable for Juventus’ season finale are the three long-term injuries: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik.
Tudor said that his squad is “focused and developing” heading into the season finale.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Options, again, are limited in defense, and that almost certainly means somebody who isn’t totally accustomed to playing as a center back in a three-man backline will be asked to do just that.
So, let’s discuss the Portuguese fullback who will likely have to be a center back in Venice.
Parma v Juventus - Serie A Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images
It took a while for Alberto Costa to get his first Juventus start since arriving in January. It took much less time for him to get his second start as a Juve player. Both scenarios have essentially come out of necessity because of all the injuries and suspensions that Tudor has had to deal with the last couple of weeks, but the young Portuguese fullback has been up to the challenge on both instances.
Now, with so much riding on what Juventus can do Sunday night and one final matchday this season in which injuries and suspensions will seriously hamper who Tudor will actually have available to him, Costa is bound to be starting against Venezia — and likely to do so as one of the back three if the predicted starting lineups are on the money.
Which, obviously, is not the position in which Juventus signed him to play. But one they suddenly need him to play like he has been once again.
Even as it’s taken a while to see the 21-year-old Costa crack the starting lineup, he has looked up to it over the course of the first two starts he’s made as a Juventus player. It’s come at a time in which plenty has been changing around him in terms of both the players around him and the position he’s had to play. Over his first handful of appearances as a Juve player, he’s played as a wingback, a fullback and part of the back three — and that’s just under Tudor.
So why not another change from where he played last week, right? Only feels appropriate with all of the changing and lack of consistency that we’ve seen Juve deal with in defense this season.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, May 25, 2025.
Where: Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, Venice, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Sports Deportes (United States); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 251, Sky Sport 4K (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, foxsports.com, Fox Sports app (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.