After the disappointment of last season’s UEFA Champions League disaster, Juventus have qualified for the second round of this season’s competition.
Tuesday night’s 0–0 draw against Atletico Madrid was enough for Juventus to seal second place in Group A. That result was important for a couple of reasons. Juventus have underachieved in Europe in recent years and new coach Massimiliano Allegri needed to show that he had what it takes in Europe’s most prestigious club competition.
Although the Bianconeri won three consecutive Serie A titles under Antonio Conte, they were not able to recreate that dominance in Europe. Conte’s Juventus did reach the quarter-finals in 2012-13, when they lost to eventual Champions League winners Bayern Munich, but were eliminated in the group stage in 2013-14 and relegated to the Europa League.
Juventus fans can blame last season’s underachievement on their controversial away loss to Real Madrid or their bizarre loss away to Galatasaray in snowy conditions but the Bianconeri’s performances were not in any way as impressive as their Serie A displays. With all due respect to FC Copenhagen, Juventus should have defeated them comfortably on matchday one instead of drawing 1–1 in Denmark.
Things weren’t looking much better after the third day of action in this season’s Champions League. After defeating Swedish champions Malmo 2–0 in Turin and losing 1–0 away to Atletico Madrid, Juventus suffered a 1–0 loss in Greece to Olympiacos.
Last season Juventus had also failed to win away from home, issues that seemed to persevere this time around. But there was an important turning point this time around, as Juventus overturned the situation in the return fixtures of the group stage.
Allegri’s side managed to defeat the Greek champions 3–2 in Turin and traveled to Sweden and defeated Malmo 2–0. The goals from Fernando Llorente and Carlos Tevez that night, represented the Bianconeri’s first away goals of the group stages.
Then there was the draw against Los Colchoneros at home, which ultimately didn’t matter much as a point was enough for Juventus to progress.
If the Bianconeri needed to atone for last season’s anti-climax, Allegri himself needed to prove his value to the Juventus fans. He was inheriting the team Conte built and he had also underachieved in Europe with the Rossoneri.
In 2011-12, AC Milan were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Barcelona and in the following season, the Blaugrana eliminated the Rossoneri in the second round.
Since becoming Juventus’ coach, Allegri has kept the Bianconeri on top of the Serie A table and his Juventus side has now qualified for the knock-out stage of the Champions League.
“At the end the result was the thing that counted, this was the first objective of the season,” Allegri said after the match.
“We wanted to progress from the group stage and it was never easy.”
This is not the end of the road for Allegri and his team though. They cannot rest of their laurels and say that they have done enough. After all, it would be fair to assume that qualifying for the knock-out stages should be a minimum requirement for one of Italy’s big guns.
Juventus should aim to progress beyond the round of 16, but after some disappointing experiences for club and coach in recent seasons, qualifying for the knock-out stages was a necessity.
Follow Vito Doria on Twitter: @VitoCDoria
