Ninth consecutive Scudetto for Juventus
History is repeating itself again in Italy's league competition. Juventus have won their ninth consecutive Scudetto title after beating Sampdoria 2-0 on the final day and are now the dominant team in Italian football with 36 titles (the same as Inter and Milan combined). Now the goal is to return to win again in the Champions League, which resists the club 'bianconero'.
La Vecchia Signora's ninth successive title, won just two rounds before the end of the season, is a real record in Europe's major leagues (in Spain, for example, Real Madrid's best run of five consecutive league titles) and demonstrates the Turin-based club's great potential in Italy. Something that remains to be further endorsed in Europe.
Maurizio Sarri's side succeeded thanks to the lack of continuity of their rivals, with Inter, Atalanta and Lazio alternating in second place and not being consistent in their pursuit of Juve in the standings. Having only gained five points in five rounds, Juventus got the win they needed against a goalless Sampdoria, who like all their last opponents made them suffer for several stretches of the match, showing that the Juventus level is not the right one at the moment.
Although the Turin squad still has some players of such caliber that unbalance the games alone. In the match against Samp the great star was Cristiano Ronaldo who opened the way to victory with the first goal, the 31st of the season for him in the competition. The second goal was scored by Federico Bernardeschi and was the final sentence to confirm a new tightening of the league for Juve.
Two of these stars are the ones who, for coach Sarri, have made the difference for a new league title: Cristiano himself and Paulo Dybala. "Cristiano and Dybala make the difference, this Scudetto is to their credit," said the Italian coach. Although he also highlighted the work of the rest of the structure: "But we have a great directive, we have a president who is always close, especially in the defeats. The club is an important element here.
For the Juventus coach, was the first Italian title: "It is particular, winning is difficult and this is a team that has been winning for 80 years. Every year is more complicated. Assuming things in sport is one of the biggest mistakes. It was a particular Serie A, very long, very hard. We won it two days in advance and it's a great merit of the group. After eight years it wasn't easy.
Now the challenge is to win the Champions League, a title that has eluded Juventus on several occasions, in fact they have only won two finals out of nine. The last two were lost to Spanish teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona, and now they will be looking to make up for it in the next special Champions League finals to be held at the Lisbon venue, abandoning the usual format of play-offs due to the shock of the COVID-19 health crisis, which forced all competitions to be stopped and schedules reconfigured.
The next hurdle for Juventus is the return leg of the Round of 16 against Olympique Lyon on home soil after losing 1-0 in the first leg in France. We'll see if the Turin team can come back and finally match their impeccable record in Italy in Europe.
