Juventus may still have a shot at playing in the Champions League next season.
At this point in the year, Napoli has already secured the Serie A title. The rest of the league is now battling for those coveted Champion’s Leauge spots. Unfortunately for Juve, they are now sitting in 7th place with 59 points. They were docked 10 points last week for false accounting which knocked them out of the top 4. Even with the penalty, they are still within striking distance of a spot in European competition.
At the moment, Napoli, Inter Milan and Lazio are close to being locked into to the top three spots. That leaves one, maybe two, spots left for teams like AC Milan, Roma, Atalanta and, of course, Juve to fight for over the last weeks of the season.
Roma and Atalanta sit in front of Juve at 60 and 61 points respectively. With a victory against Milan, Juve would leapfrog both teams and in 5th place. With a victory next week against Udinese and a miraculous loss by Milan against Verona, Juve could jump into the 4th spot. That is, of course, easier said than done. Juve will need to be at their absolute best to start with a win today.
For a moment, let’s explore the possibility of Juve finishing in 5th. With a bit of help, that could be enough to get into the Champions League.
While that is normally the spot for the Europa League, there’s a chance that Juve could make it to the big dance if they get some help from Inter Milan. If Inter wins the Champions League final against Manchester City, Serie A would get another Champions League spot which Juve would fill. And with that, Juve would be in the Champions League.
A lot of this is speculation and predictions about how the last few games are going to go in the league. The best possible case scenario for Juve to play in Europe is to simply do their job and win their games.
That starts with AC Milan today.