The last day of the Serie A season was as chaotic as has been seen in the last few years. After the Napoli locked down the scudetto (barf) on Friday night, the rest of the consequential places in the table were set to be decided on Sunday.
At stake for Juventus was Serie A’s final Champions League spot. It was a simple mission brief: win, and play at the big table in 2025-26. Anything else, and they would need help — help they couldn’t exactly count on, given the favorable matchups their rivals for the top four had going into the day.
As it happened, half that help came when Lazio stunningly fell to a 10-man Lecce side. Roma, however, did not oblige with a similar meltdown, beating Torino 2-0 and forcing Juve to take home all three points against a Venezia team that themselves were playing for their lives to avoid the drop.
The game at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo was a microcosm of the 2024-25 season since the middle of October: ragged, ugly, and headdesk-inducing. Juve found themselves behind 70 seconds into the match, turned that around to lead 2-1 headed into the break, let Venezia break through for an out-of-nowhere equalizer midway through the second half, and finally hauled themselves over the finish line after scoring a penalty with 17 minutes to go, securing a topsy-turvy 3-2 win that clinched them a spot in Europe’s premier competition while sending their opponents back down to the second tier.
With his team’s season on the line, Igor Tudor was facing an extreme selection crisis in the back. Pierre Kalulu was suspended, and Renato Veiga and Federico Gatti were only fit for the bench, forcing Tudor to improvise along his back three. Teun Koopmeiners and Weston McKennie were likewise unable to start. Michele Di Gregorio started in goal behind Tudor’s usual 3-4-2-1. The cobbled together back line consisted of Alberto Costa, Lloyd Kelly, and Nicolò Savona. Nico González and Andrea Cambiaso served as wing-backs, with Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram making up the midfield. Kenan Yildiz and Francisco Conceição supported Randal Kolo Muani in attack.
Eusebio Di Francesco was trying to avoid relegation with a second team in as many seasons. Jay Idzes sat out a ban, while Michale Svoboda and Cheick Condé on the treatment table. A 3-5-2 was deployed, with Ionut Radu in goal. Joël Schingtienne, Marin Sverko, and Fali Candé formed the back three, with Alessio Zerbin and Ridgeciano Haps manning the wing-back spots. Issa Doumbia and Mikael Ellertsson flanked former Juve prospect Hans Nicolussi Caviglia in midfield, while Daniel Fila and John Yeboah tipped the spear as the strikers.
Things felt like they were going south very quickly, as the makeshift Juve defense ended up everywhere but where they needed to be as Haps and Ellertsson combined to move the former into the left side of the box. That sucked Savona in to try to challenge the cross, leaving Fila completely unmarked to tap the ball in from eight yards while Cambiaso desperately tried to get there in time and Kelly was nowhere to be seen.
Seventy-five seconds into the game, the relegation battlers had the lead.
Almost exactly three minutes later, it looked like Juve had made their response. Costa, who had been unable to interdict Ellertsson’s pass to Haps moments earlier, took down a defensive header and ripped the ball into the top corner past Radu. But once the celebrating was done, VAR Aleandro Di Paolo held the kickoff and ultimately communicated to Andrea Colombo that the ball had come off Costa’s arm. Quite how that conclusion reached the threshold of “clear and obvious error” that is always talked about for an overturn is another question, as multiple shots of the play looked inconclusive as to whether or not it had come off the arm of Costa or Ellertsson, but the goal was chalked off, leaving Juve adrift once more.
As the game went on and news came that a Leandro Paredes penalty had given Roma a 1-0 lead, the need for a goal became all the more urgent. Luckily, the biggest improvement in this team since Tudor’s arrival has been in the team’s mindset, and Juve never looked anything other than determined. In the 25th minute, they pulled off a carbon copy of the first goal they’d scored in Tudor’s tenure, with Cambiaso immediately triggering in a throw-in to Yildiz, who had found some space and flew into the box. A quick twist shook off Sverko, and he fired into a tight angle and pushed it through the hands of Radu and into the net to tie the score.
Venezia’s inability to clear their lines cost them for real six minutes later, when Costa rushed in and dispossessed Nicolussi Caviglia right in front of the box. The ball rolled perfectly for Kolo Muani, who marked what was maybe his final game at Juventus with a laser that once again went through the hand of an ineffective Radu to give Juve the lead and turn the game fully around less than half an hour after going behind.
Venezia v Juventus - Serie A Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Getty Images
Nicolussi Caviglia had the look of someone with a point to prove the entire match, and tried to make up for his mistake quickly, taking the return pass on a short corner and then deciding to surprise Di Gregorio with a pot shot at the near post, only to thump it off the outside of the post.
Juve headed into the half in position to head to the Champions League, but things weren’t going to be that easy. A lightning counterattack off a beautiful pass by Nicolussi Caviglia split the defense open, and Doumbia’s drag back across the box was met by Haps, who was screaming down to meet the ball, and his shot was deflected in off Kelly’s boot to tie the score.
Juve again came close an almost instant response, but Conceição missed the top corner after Kolo Muani held the ball up and fed him into the channel. After that quick miss, though, it looked like Juventus had started to run out of ideas. They hadn’t created much of anything as the 70th minute rolled by, and alarm bells started ringing with 19 minutes left when another intense counterattack saw Yeboah feed Doumbia with a fantastic ball. The midfielder tried to catch Di Gregorio at his near post, but he threw up his hand and tipped it over the top corner.
It was only a minute later that the game was decided on the other end.
Yildiz lifted a ball over the top for Conceição, who took it down and faced up Nicolussi Caviglia. He made one move, tried to drive into the box, and was taken down by the young midfielder just as he crossed the boundary of the penalty area. It was one of the most obvious penalties of the entire season, and Colombo had pointed to the spot before the Portuguese stopped rolling.
Up to the penalty spot stepped Locatelli. Juve’s captain wasn’t one of the usual penalty takers. He hadn’t taken a spot-kick in Serie A since he was on Sassuolo. But, understanding the responsibility of the captaincy, he took the ball for himself. When the whistle blew, he lofted the ball to the top corner on the right. Radu guessed right, but it was placed out of his reach.
Venezia v Juventus - Serie A Photo by Mattia Radoni/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Locatelli nearly doubled his tally a few minutes later when he looked for the other top corner from the penalty arc, but the ball flew past the post by the width of the ball. By that point, results elsewhere had guaranteed that Venezia were going to be relegated regardless, but to their credit they kept on going, but the only two shots they managed to put on target were easily saved by Di Gregorio. Players from both sides were severely cramping, but when Thuram finally pushed the ball into the corner and then Venezia committed a final foul up near midfield, the blood pressure could finally start to drop, and Juve’s players celebrated, joy tinged with relief that they had at least reached the bare minimum for the season.
LE PAGELLE
MICHELE DI GREGORIO - 8. Yes, that one save was worth quite a bit in the grade department. Without it, Juve are scrambling to chase after two goals in less than 20 minutes. Easily the biggest stop he’s made all year, and he’s made some big ones.
ALBERTO COSTA - 6. Had a rough start on the goal, but he should’ve gotten that goal, and winning the ball against Nicolussi Caviglia got Juve their second goal. Taken off at the half to avoid his yellow card as opposed to anything else.
LLOYD KELLY - 4. Completely at sea for most of the first half. Wherever he was on that first goal was...not where he was supposed to be. He had some good counting stats, but he’s just not there.
NICOLÒ SAVONA - 5.5. Relatively solid but started getting burned by Yeboah as the game went on, which caused some issues late.
NICO GONZÁLEZ - 5.5. Led the team with seven clearances, but wasn’t able to do much going forward. Most of Juve’s best attacks came from the other side.
MANUEL LOCATELLI - 8. Had the stones to take the game in his hands as captain and take the penalty. He’s not had the most perfect of Juventus careers, and he’s got his flaws, but he proved that he’s worthy of that armband.
KHÉPHREN THURAM - 7. Did the work of three guys in midfield. Tied for the team lead with five tackles, along with two interceptions, two clearances, a blocked shot, and a 90.4 percent completion rate. There have been some misses over the last few transfer windows, but this man is not one of them.
ANDREA CAMBIASO - 6. Had three tackles on the left side and made a pair of key passes going forward. Good performance to end a Jekyll and Hyde season.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO - 6. Had a tough time with this one, because he didn’t exactly pass the eye test a lot of the time, but he made three key passes and ultimately won the game picking up that penalty.
KENAN YILDIZ - 7. Three key passes to go with his goal and was a problem for Venezia’s right flank all night. Tracked back well too, to the tune of a pair of tackles.
Venezia v Juventus - Serie A Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images
RANDAL KOLO MUANI - 7. Ran his tail off, picked up three key passes, and you could give him an unofficial one for feeding Conceição before the penalty. Smart finish on his goal, with power to spare to blast it through Radu’s hand. I wouldn’t be upset seeing him in Juve colors next season. We’ll see what happens.
SUBS
RENATO VEIGA - 6.5. Solidified things in the back after coming on at half. Had as many clearances as two of the three starters in the back and completed all 10 of his passes. The biggest impact was that Kelly looked like less of a liability with him there.
WESTON McKENNIE - NR. Sent in to defend and defend and defend some more, and did his job to lock down the game as it finished.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC - NR. Put some pressure on Radu & Co. to keep Venezia from building too easily.
TIMOTHY WEAH - NR. Replaced an exhausted (and bloodied) González and got a tackle in in his 10 minutes.
FEDERICO GATTI - NR. Cleared the ball away with his first touch, helped keep things solid for the final few minutes. Hopefully he’s back full-bore for the CWC.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Tudor didn’t have a ton to work with in this game from a selection standpoint. But the hallmarks of his style were all over this game. There was the quick throw-in by Cambiaso that put Yildiz in position for his goal — a carbon copy of the first time Juve scored under Tudor and a testament to how well the team took to his style of directness and verticality. His pressure game was there too, as seen in the lead-up to Juve’s second goal, when Costa won the ball right up against the Venezia penalty area.
Venezia v Juventus - Serie A Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Getty Images
Tudor deserves a lot of credit for taking a demoralized team and giving them the mental and tactical fortitude to pick themselves up from their lowest point of the season and get the results they needed to get themselves into the top four. I’d personally say he deserves to take next season at the helm, but the gears of the Serie A coaching carousel are turning and it’s very possible he’ll see another coach — one with a crazy temper and blue eyes, perhaps — in the job.
One way or the other, given how important being in next year’s Champions League was for this team from a financial perspective, Tudor saved the ship when it was in dire straits. He’s added to the leagacy he left as a player over the last few months for that alone.
LOOKING AHEAD
It’s not a normal offseason, as Juventus will have about three weeks to relax before the Club World Cup starts up in the USA. Their first group game will be on June 18 (or the early hours of June 19 in Italy) against Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates.
As for this campaign, it’s (finally) in the past. On behalf of Danny, Chuks, Sergio, Dante, Liam, and producer Kaush on the Old Lady Speaks end, I’d like to thank you for following this dumpster fire of a season with us as you always have. Or if you’re new, hi, welcome, and we hope you chose our little community to stay with next season and beyond. We’re nothing without all of you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.