There have been times in which the Juventus Women, no matter the season and no matter the talent on thr roster, have made things difficult for themselves in Europe. But when it comes to the first-ever
Women’s Champions League league phase, the Bianconere have not only made a very good impression, but they’ve put themselves in serious competition for one of the few automatic qualifiers that are out for the taking.
They also got one of the first steps out of the way, too.
With Juventus Women’s 5-0 win over Austrian side St. Pölten on Tuesday night, Max Canzi’s squad clinched at least a spot in the UWCL play-off round. That means, at worst, Juve will finish in the top 12 of the 18-team league table and control their own destiny when it comes to qualifying for the competition’s quarterfinal round (and beyond) come the new year. But as this is being written, the win moved Juventus into an astonishing table location of second place behind one of the true giants of the women’s game, Barcelona Femini, and they’re just one of four teams on 10 points before the late fixtures Tuesday night were completed. It will likely be different once Matchday 5’s schedule comes to an end, but it’s a pretty impressive situation nonetheless as they have just one game remaining in the league phase.
So as they take the field at the Allianz Stadium next Wednesday night against Manchester United, Juve will have the chance to potentially lock up a place in the top four, have nothing to do with the play-off round and just wait for the chaos to play out as they watch from their respective places of residence in Turin.
No matter how much fog was present in Saint Pölten, it was a result that Juventus didn’t leave any doubt about.
Cristiana Girelli scored a pair of penalty kicks on either side of halftime, while three others — Amalie Vangsgaard, Tatiana Pinto and Paulina Krumbiegel — also got on the scoresheet in what proved to be an absolute romp that could prove to be a very helpful thing if a tiebreaker comes down to goal differential. Vangsgaard found the back of the net just six minutes in, and from there the Bianconere only sent wave after wave forward against a St. Pölten side that entered the night at the bottom of the league phase table.
They dominated on the scoreline, on the stat sheet and basically wherever else you looked.
Juventus outshot their opponent 23-5 on the night. Juve keeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin didn’t even have to make a save and was a relative spectator for much of the time during one of her most stress-free nights in between the sticks for the reigning Italian champions. Of the 23 shots Juve had, 10 of which were deemed to be big chances by Sofascore, a simply wild figure when you consider that is nearly half of the scoring chances they had against St. Pölten.
But this was the kind of result that Juventus Women needed to come out and have to not just secure a spot in the knockout phase of the competition, but to even have a top-four finish potentially on the cards a week from now. They will of course need some other results to go their way over the next 24 hours, but taking the field against Manchester United with a decent chance of finishing in the top four? That’s more than anybody could have expected from this team when the league phase began a couple of months ago.
