On the two-month anniversary of Juventus Women hiring Isaac Guerrero as their new head coach, the Spanish tactician got his new-look squad past the final hurdle necessary to see them qualify for the Women’s Champions League league phase once again.
For some, that was going to be quite the task with so much turnover this summer and Guerrero having little time to get to work with his new team before the qualification process got underway last month.
But in front of the hometown crowd — and some very
notable front office member from both the men’s and women’s sporting area — in Biella on Wednesday night, Guerrero’s Bianconere got the result they needed, a 1-1 draw, against Austrian side St. Pölten to qualify for the UWCL league phase. Portuguese midfielder Tatiana Pinto scored Juventus Women’s lone goal of the night five minutes before halftime, but it was the 3-0 victory last week in Austria that allowed the Bianconere to see out the game and claim the 4-1 advantage on aggregate in the final round of the qualification path.
And with it came a ticket into the 16-team league phase — which is in effect for a second season after they made the switch to replicate the men’s setup at the beginning of last season’s competition.
Juve got through the four-team mini tournament last month. They then got a much less complicated draw against St. Pölten as compared to two years ago when they had to go through a Paris Saint-Germain side that was one of the last teams standing the season prior to make the group stage.
But, as Guerrero pointed out in his post-match press conference, this was his team’s fourth game in the midst of a five-game stretch over the course of 17 days between Women’s Champions League qualification and the group stage of the Serie A Women’s Cup. Sunday’s game against AC Milan will serve as the final game in that big early-season run of games as well as the Group C finale in the Serie A Women’s Cup, with Juve currently atop the group.
“We didn’t think about managing, but we wanted to win,” Guerrero said after Wednesday’s draw. “The girls have this spirit in their blood and they know that at this club you always have to win. The girls deserve this achievement. … (Qualifying for the UWCL league phase) was clearly our main goal for the season. These girls knew they couldn’t fail to achieve this goal. It was very important for the club, and they managed to qualify and proved they were worthy of this jersey once again.”
The UWCL league phase draw will take place at 12 p.m. CEST on Friday in Nyon. Juve and Serie A Women champions Roma are in Pot 2, while Inter Milan — which upset German giants Wolfsburg to qualify for the league phase — are in Pot 3. It’s the first time that three Italian teams have advanced to this final stage of the Women’s Champions League.
“I think this team can do well against anyone,” Guerrero said.
