As the most successful club in Italy, Juventus typically have bigger fish to fry than the Europa League when it comes to continental football.
but after a disappointing champions league campaignwhere they have only won once in six games, they are in the second competition in Europe where they are one of the favorites to lift the trophy next spring.
Can they do it? These are some of the obstacles the team could face along the way.
Play off vs Nantes
When it comes to dream venues, Juventus fans may have preferred an alternate French team instead of the one they got in the last 16 draw.
Monaco is one of the classic European destinations, located on the French Riviera with a pleasant climate throughout the year. Its capital, Monte Carlo, represents a bygone era, with its grand old casinos contrasting with the expensive and marked free online slots and other internet casino games available today. It’s also a great place to see beautiful cobbled streets and old buildings.
Nantes, on the other hand, is a rainy port city on the northwest coast of France that won’t be as appealing to visiting fans. Many won’t mind though, as FC Nantes are having a much tougher season than their south coast compatriots. While Monaco bets on European football again next season, Canary Islands they face a relegation battle after winning just two of their first 14 games.
Juve will enjoy their chances of beating them in the quarter-finals far more than they will against Monaco, whose attacking partnership of Wissam Ben-Yedder and Breel Embolo are in brilliant form.
They will also be pleased to have avoided the big shots Manchester United and union berlin fit who have kept pace with Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga.
The last 16 and beyond
Juve will be heavy favorites to knock out Nantes in two legs and, if they do, they will fall into the hat along with the other seven play-off winners and eight Europa League group winners.
This is where it could get tricky for the Turin side. Apart from Man United, they could attract Ajax, Barcelona, ​​Arsenal or Bayer Leverkusen. A two-legged draw against any of these will require Juve to dig deep and produce some of their best performances of the season.
These big teams are also Juve’s biggest rivals for the trophy: Arsenal’s red-hot start to the season makes them 4/1 favourites, with Juventus fourth on the list at around 12/1.
Key players. main players
If Juventus are to get past these top teams, they will need to rely on the rock-solid defense that manager Massimiliano Allegri has built this season, conceding just a handful of goals in the first 15 games of the season.
Key to this is the partnership of center half club legend Leo Bonucci and Brazilian Bremer, who joined from city rivals Torino in the summer. It seems the two have played together for years, and the silver lining to Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup is that veteran Bonucci gets a well-deserved winter break.
Moving forward, wingers Filip Kostic and Juan Cuadrado have been providing the serve, with their assists reaching double figures, while Dušan Vlahović picked up where he left off from a prolific 21/22 campaign with six goals in his first 10 Serie A games this season.
At first glance, Juve have a team built for cup football, with their stingy defense and ability to hurt teams at half-time. Allegri has proven his worth in big cup competitions before too, let’s not forget: his Juve team reached the Champions League final twice in 2015 and 2017.
After falling at the last hurdle twice there, he hopes a Europa League win will ease the pain a bit.
The end
the Puskas Stadium in budapest It may not mean much to Juve fans, but that will change on May 31.st if they reach the Europa League final there.
The stadium seats close to 70,000 people, so tens of thousands of fans of any of the participating teams will have the opportunity to see their team in search of glory live, although thousands more will undoubtedly make a trip together. modes.
If Juve win it, it will be their first major European trophy in 27 years, since winning the Champions League and Super Cup in 1996. They had won the Europa League, or UEFA Cup, three years earlier.
How appropriate it would be for Juve fans if they could score 30the anniversary of that victory with a triumph in Budapest? As for history repeating itself and them winning another Champions League three years later… well, they can always dream.
Photo by Robert Anderson on Unsplash
