Four games. Fourth place.
Once upon a time, there were whispers of Juventus mounting a late, surprising title challenge. But, as we know, reality can often be painfully different from our dreams.
Nevertheless, we had no time to cry over broken dreams. We had to face the reality of fighting tooth and nail to secure a place in next season’s Champions League. And it was a fight that required every ounce of our strength to win.
Four Finals
Juventus had four critical games to play in the last month of the season. The first was against the team that would eventually win this season’s Coppa Italia: Bologna. After their spectacular last-minute victory over Inter just a few weeks earlier, our opponents’ confidence was sky high. Juventus took a surprising lead through a stroke of luck. Goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski completely fumbled Khephren Thuram’s shot in the ninth minute and saw it bounce into goal.
The Bianconeri defended well and Bologna struggled to get any type of momentum in the first half. But they gradually improved and scored a deserved equalizer early in the second half when Remo Freuler’s deflected shot inside the box flew past Michele Di Gregorio, who had had little to do before then. Bologna pushed hard for the winner but despite their dominance, they had only two shots on target all game, one of which was the goal. Final score: 1-1.
Juventus then traveled to Rome to face fellow Champions League hopefuls Lazio. It was a rather uneventful first half with few attacking opportunities for either side. Randal Kolo Muani scored his first goal in months when he headed in Weston McKennie’s inch-perfect cross in the 51st minute. Lazio barely threatened and it looked like Juventus were going to obtain three crucial points and solidify fourth place.
But of course, things never go as planned.
Pierre Kalulu received a red card for supposedly punching the obnoxious, irritating, and always-exaggerating Valentín Castellanos in an off-the-ball incident. To this day, I have not seen a replay that provides conclusive evidence for the foul, but I suppose there’s no point in complaining anymore. Lazio predictably dominated the rest of the game and created lots of opportunities but most of them were off target.
Nicolo Savona’s terrible error in the 88th minute resulted in Di Gregorio fouling Castellanos in the box and giving away a penalty, but thankfully the Argentine was offside so the penalty was overruled. Lazio came even closer just a few minutes later when substitute Boulaye Dia saw his shot crash off the near post.
The Bianconeri defense eventually crumbled in the 96th minute. Di Gregorio saved from Castellanos’s header but Matias Vecino tapped in the rebound to equalize. Final score: 1-1.
We returned to winning ways thanks to a 2-0 victory over Udinese in the final home match of the season. Juventus dominated the match but despite 24 shots and 64% ball possession, it took us over an hour to score the first goal. Nico González scored his third of the season after he outmuscled an Udinese defender, played a 1-2 with Yildiz, and scored from close range. Yildiz then provided his second assist of the game a few minutes before the end when he led a counterattack and played an inch-perfect through ball to Vlahovic, who finished with a powerful left-footed shot.
Juventus v Udinese - Serie A Photo by Chris Ricco/Getty Images
It all came down to Matchday 38: the last game of the season away against Venezia, who had to win to have a chance of staying in Serie A next season. The task was simple but not easy: we had to match Roma’s result in order to secure the fourth and final place in next season’s Champions League competition. It looked like the Bianconeri had not received the memo as Venezia took the lead after 75 seconds. It was clear that the Bianconeri was playing without a recognized center back because the defense was all over the place when Ridgeciano Haps burst free on the wing and crossed to Daniel Fila for the goal.
Alberto Costa thought he had equalized in the fifth minute when he scored a thunderous half-volley from the edge of the box, but the goal was disallowed for a dubious handball. Yildiz equalized when he picked up a quick throw-in from Cambiaso, bamboozled a defender in the box with his dribbling, and finished with a shot in the far corner. Kolo Muani then received a pass from Costa and scored with a shot that, like with Yildiz’s goal, Venezia goalkeeper Ionut Radu probably should have saved.
Venezia, helped by the immense support and passion from the home fans, truly fought with every ounce of energy they had and scored their second goal soon after half time. After assisting the first goal, Haps equalized for Venezia when his deflected shot in the box flew past Di Gregorio. Thankfully, Conceição clinched the win for the visitors when he won a penalty in the 73rd minute after Juventus loanee Hans Nicolussi Caviglia couldn’t handle the winger’s pace and tripped him inside the box. Manuel Locatelli, wearing the captain’s armband, finished his fantastic season by scoring the game-winning, Champions League-clinching goal from the penalty spot: 3-2.
A nerve-wracking game that ends a disappointing and emotional rollercoaster of a season for Juventus. The club ends the 2024-25 season in fourth place with 70 points from 18 wins, an astounding 16 draws, and four losses.
Juventus Women
Juventus played Inter in the final league match of the season at the Allianz Stadium. Given that neither side had anything to play for anymore at that point, it wasn’t a very eventful game. Haley Bugeja scored the game’s only goal in the 76th minute to give Inter a win that allowed them to end the season on a high note. The most important news of the day was that this was also Sara Gama’s final game as a professional football player. A few weeks earlier, Juventus’ one and only captain announced that she was ending her career at the end of the season and she received an emotional sendoff in the last game of her career, fittingly coming off in the third minute to a standing ovation to represent her No. 3 that she wore throughout her career in Turin.
Juventus v AS Roma - Women Coppa Italia Final Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
But Juventus still had one last piece of business to take care of: the Coppa Italia Femminile final against Roma. It was a match that gave us a beautiful end to the season. First, Cristiana Girelli won and scored a penalty in the 13th minute of the game. Sofia Cantore, wrapping up her best season as a professional footballer, then scored the second just a few minutes later after capitalizing on an error in the Roma defense. Lindsey Thomas scored a somewhat lucky third goal — after just half an hour played — when her shot took a heavy deflection off a defender and looped over goalkeeper Camelia Ceasar.
The fourth goal came when Girelli headed in a great cross from Boattin in the 34th minute. Juventus understandably took its foot of the gas in the second half and defended their lead till the final whistle when it celebrated another trophy. Final score: 4-0 and a domestic double!
Big Decisions
Well, folks ... another season has come to an end.
Given that we’re publishing our post-season ratings and reviews as you read this, I’ll share a few brief comments on Igor Tudor and recommend that you read our season reviews for more in-depth analyses.
While the team enjoyed the well-known “new manager bump” in the first few weeks after Tudor replaced Thiago Motta and steadied the ship, not too much changed with the new coach besides that. That said, I do want to acknowledge two big changes that Tudor implemented when he took charge. First, the switch to a 3-4-something improved the team and put more players in their natural/best positions. Second, and to me this is probably the more significant one, he recognized our best central midfield pairing — Locatelli and Thuram — and stuck with it.
Till this day, I still don’t understand why Motta used Thuram so inconsistently during his time in charge. Was it fitness? Was it personal reasons? Was he not training well? We’ll probably never know, even though it became obvious very quickly that he was one of our best central midfielders and that him and Locatelli were a perfect match.
Manuel Locatelli and Khepren Thuram of Juventus FC during... “We both know that you and I are the best...”
Photo by Antonietta Baldassarre/Insidefoto/LightRocket via Getty Images
As another season ended, I want to thank you all for supporting this website and following the podcast.
We obviously have big summer ahead of us (again!). The Club World Cup will shorten the summer break that players have and add more fatigue and risk of injury to players who are already stretched to the maximum. We have to figure out who our new manager will be and whether we will (yet again) start a new “project” for the club, whatever that word even means.
Most importantly, we have to figure out which of the big-money signings from last summer deserve another chance and which will be sold. I’ve also basically come to accept that every summer we have to sell a Next Gen graduate in order to get those sweet capital gains to balance the books. So who will it be this summer?
As always, it’s should be an eventful few months before the start of the next season. We hope you stick with us and follow it here!