The unfortunate part of Juventus’ regression from the best in Italy a half-decade ago to whatever you want to call the 2026 version of the club is that the last month of each season has turned into an absolute grit-your-teeth moment when it comes to Champions League qualification. It has left you with the feeling of no matter how Juve played, they just need to get the three points. It’s a much, much, much more tame version of the club’s mantra that we all know by heart but obviously doesn’t have
anywhere close to as much sting as the original version.
It has turned these games in the final month of each season into both a must-win situation and also a “please oh please just win” kind of deal, too.
We saw that with Juventus on Saturday night at the Via Del Mare. Were Juve all that good? Nope, not at all. But when they heard the final whistle sound, they secured a big three points with a 1-0 win over a 17th-place Lecce squad that is just hanging onto their Serie A lives by a couple of threads. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t the kind of strong performance like we saw against Bologna or Atalanta a few weeks ago. It wasn’t memorable for pretty much most of the time after Dusan Vlahovic found the back of the net within 15 seconds of kickoff. Hell, Juve saw more goals chalked after we thought they had scored thanks to VAR reviews rather than actual goals being scored.
It was one of those nights that could have gone bad — very, very bad.
But, you know what it didn’t? In some ways, I don’t really know how. This could have been a game in which Juventus threw away more points along the same lines as they did last weekend against a team that is just outside the relegation zone rather than against a club that will be playing in Serie B next season. It’s the kind of opponent that they’ve done that exactly thing multiple times over the last couple of years. Or, better yet, IT IS an opponent that they’ve done that exact same thing multiple times over the last couple of years.
Not on this night.
Juventus need three wins in their final three games to ensure that they qualify for the Champions League without any sort of help needed from a handful of teams that will play Roma and Como the rest of the way that is far from impressive. Thankfully, we can now say that Juventus have the first of those three wins to their name.
In short, I am saying that I don’t care how Juventus win these final three games. I just want them to win them.
Is that a Juventus way of thinking from yesteryear? Not the glory days. Not from the decade of dominance during the 2010s. But it is, unfortunately, a common theme of the last few years as Juventus’ biggest target in April and May is to hang on for a third- or fourth-place finish and qualify for the Champions League in the final weeks of the season.
So much like we saw against Lecce on this night, it was a bit of slog even if Juventus ended up getting all three points at the final whistle. Maybe you’re like and you don’t care how Juve got the points just as long as they did, but it certainly wasn’t a strong performance. Juventus were wasteful in front of goal — and that’s on top of the two goals that were chalked off in the second half thanks to Vlahovic being ruled offside. Even with those goals being called off, it should have been much more than 1-0 win in which a couple of big saves from Michele Di Gregorio helped you get the three points and the clean sheet.
Would you rather have Juventus recording close to 30 shots like they did last week but not winning again? Not at all. I’ll take what Juve did on this day over what Juve did against Hellas Verona on that day.
A perfect world would be a win over both, but that feels like too much to ask sometimes when it comes to the current iteration of Juventus.
So now we can say that Juve’s in third place with a full slate of Sunday fixtures that have implications with how things look heading into the penultimate matchday of the 2025-26 season. Juve could very well end the day in third place with another slip-up from Milan. They could end the weekend just as they started it if Roma get a win over a Parma team that has taken points off some of the big clubs in the last couple of months.
At the very least Juventus won — and that is more than we could say last weekend.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- A Juventus goal in the first 15 seconds?! IN THIS ECONOMY?!
- But seriously that was not something I expected. Good thing I may or may not have made the half-hour drive home from work a little above the speed limit to ensure I got home before kickoff happened. If I was a minute late, then I would have missed Vlahovic’s opener. But I wasn’t. Because I risked it for Juventus.
- In a way, I can’t help but think about how
- But hey, no matter how this game might have turned out, at least we were able to get Luciano Spalletti breaking the fourth wall and giving us this kind of picture to use in subsequent weeks and months …
- That man makes me laugh. His substitutions might have been a little perplexing and seemed a little too late (again), but at least his sideline swagger will never relent no matter what is going on. It’s the 72nd minute and Spalletti is messing with the camera guy? Maybe he knew his team had it the enture way.
- I sure didn’t, though. That’s probably the last handful of seasons of Juventus blowing leads against provincial teams talking. It’s nothing specific about you, though, Lucio. I promise you that!
- Spalletti certainly made the right call in starting Vlahovic, huh? There were some classic Vlahovic moments in there for sure, but that goal in the first 15 seconds sure proved massive.
- As did the Di Gregorio saves. I hate to think about what this game might have been like if Lecce had tied things up all of a few minutes after Vlahovic’s opener. Thankfully we don’t because of that first save Di Gregorio made. It’s not always going to be pretty with him these days, but he answered the call a week after he played a role in Hellas Verona getting on the scoreboard.
- That opening goal was pretty great, though. Props to Vlahovic for the slick first touch to control the ball before he shot it and shed his defender, props to Andrea Cambiaso for the assist, props to Spalletti for probably telling them to go right down the field and try to score. He obviously saw something that made him think something like that was possible.
- Kenan Yildiz clearly isn’t 100% right now, but it sure doesn’t help when Lecce players are out there hacking him at every chance they get.
- Yes, I am sitting here like you wondering how Manuel Locatelli came out of this game without being shown a yellow card and subsequently being forced to miss next weekend’s matchup with Fiorentina. That man was walking a fine line.
- Can Weston McKennie make it through one game without being whacked in the face by somebody on the opposing team? It’s happening way too often lately.
- Also, nice to see McKennie playing behind the striker for the first time in a few weeks. He is just so much better in that position as compared some of the other spots that Spalletti has used him in recently. He is one of the few who can connect the lines and make things happen. Basically he is what Cristiano Giuntoli and Thiago Motta thought Teun Koopmeiners could be and never turned out to be. Whoops!
- Francisco Conceição looked like Simone Pepe a couple of times as he tracked back and absolutely harassed somebody in a Lecce shirt who had the ball. Hell, the man also celebrated like a mad man after a tackle and while he was being shown a yellow card. Where’s this version of Chico been?!
- Still wondering how Juventus actually got a shutout in this game.
- Juventus struggling with their passing against a team that presses is a statement that feels like it goes back to biblical times at this point. It’s just so easy to predict.
- Juventus committed 2 1/2 times as many fouls as Lecce. That doesn’t seem great.
- Congrats to Vlahovic for being on a brace on Saturday night. It was actually for being part of goals that were called off, but it’s being on a hat trick nonetheless, I guess.
- I sure would like to celebrate goals rather than waiting for VAR. But so is life in 2026.
- In conclusion, it’s a good thing Lecce are not very good at all or else that could have been a lot different.
- Now, it’s time for a nap. Mostly because we have a whole lot of calcio to follow in about 12 hours. Gonna be an interesting Sunday on multiple fronts. At least Juventus won the day before.
