It is not breaking news that Juventus’ domestic and European campaigns have not exactly gone all that well through the first 2 1/2 months of the 2025-26 season. It is why Igor Tudor found himself out of a job two Mondays ago, thus resulting in the arrival of Luciano Spalletti and his much more accomplished résumé.
But, of course, Spalletti having all of a couple of training sessions under his belt is not going to suddenly change things in a snap. As much as we’d all love that, it’s just not possible
for that quick of a fix after all we’ve seen from Juve over the last season and change.
That means Spalletti and Juventus will have a big hole to try and dig out of come the final four games of the Champions League league phase when they return to European play following the November international break. As we hit the midway point of the second of this UCL league phase format, Juve are in a much worse standing in the table than they were a year ago. With Tuesday night’s draw against Sporting CP, Juve only added one more point to their tally that also includes a pair of draws and a loss to Real Madrid. Going four games without a win in Europe means that Juve are in a lower place than before Matchday 4 got underway. They entered the week in 24th place, they end the round two places lower in 26th and out of the play-off spots all together.
Juventus are one of nine teams who have not claimed a win through the first four Champions League fixtures this season. They are also the only club in the 36-team league phase that has three draws to their record so far.
The good news for Spalletti is that the second half of the league phase schedule looks, on paper, a little more manageable than the first our when Tudor had away fixtures against Villarreal and Real Madrid. (Ironically, Villarreal have claimed their only point in the Champions League this season against Juventus, so there’s that.)
But here’s where Juve’s final four league phase opponents currently sit after the first half of the schedule:
- Bodø/Glimt: 29th place
- Pafos: 20th place
- Benfica: 35th place
- Monaco: 19th place
There’s no team close to the table of the able looming. Both of Juventus’ Pot 1 opponents, Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, are things of the past. Two of the clubs still up on the schedule have already made managerial changes just like Juventus have. You look at the remaining league phase schedule and have to think that those are four very winnable games for Spalletti even if he doesn’t get everything figured out over the next couple of months.
They also need to be because Juve have just three points to their name after four games in Europe this season.
If we use last season’s league phase table as any sort of clue in terms of what Juve might need to get into the back half of the play-off spots, it’s going to be the 11-point mark to try and hit. Do the math and that means Juve will have to win at least three of those four remaining games this season to hit that mark. Actually, three wins in the final four league phase games and Juventus will equal their point total from a season ago when they finished with 12 points and finished in 20th place.
We all know how that went with the two-legged rematch with PSV Eindhoven in the play-off round.
At this point, we can forget about a top 8 finish. Those hopes are gone with how much space Juventus have to make up over the second half of the league phase fixture list. The math is just totally against them. Now, it’s all about Spalletti trying to make the best of a pretty bad situation in Europe and get this team into the top 24 and then hope for the best when it comes to how. the four-team pods and subsequent draw shake out.
