As Juventus strolled into the Coppa Italia quarterfinals last season, we saw their opponent as a relatively simple one to get past. Fact was that Empoli were in the midst of a relegation battle that would eventually see them sent down to Serie B, and Juve were wobbling yet still very much favorites over the struggling Tuscan side.
We know how that turned out.
So now 12 months later, Juventus are again in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals after strolling past Udinese in the round of 16 two months ago.
But instead of getting another mid-table or provincial side as we saw a year ago thanks to an upset, Juventus will be facing an Atalanta side that has rebounded from their brutal start to the season now that the incredibly handsome Raffaele Palladino has taken over for Gian Piero Gasperini disciple Ivan Juric. And unlike so many other years prior where Juve’s quarterfinal tie would be at the Allianz Stadium, the Bianconeri will make the trip to the New Balance Arena in Bergamo on Thursday night if they want to get one step closer to winning their first trophy since Max Allegri’s final game in charge.
It is far from the simple task that we originally viewed last season’s quarterfinal to be.
Instead, Juventus will be facing an Atalanta squad that has earned just three points fewer than Luciano Spalletti has since the former took over for Juric on Nov. 11. La Dea also finished just two spots behind Juve in the Champions League league phase table — which, surprisingly, was one of the few occurrences in Juric actually got a few points to his name during his brief time in charge in Bergamo.
But when it comes to Thursday night, it’s quite the difficult matchup for a Juventus squad that was absolutely embarrassed in this round of the Coppa Italia this time last year.
The good thing is that Juventus are in a much different space and overall state of mind compared to when they were dumped out of the Coppa Italia by Empoli last season. They’ve got much more stability at the managerial position, and the overall level that the squad is performing at five weeks into 2026 feels like a stark contrast when you feel like dipping back into the depths of where things were 12 months ago. (But don’t do it for that long because we don’t want you to start feeling truly horrible or just start doomscrolling for the next couple of hours.)
Juventus are coming off a 4-1 win over Parma over the weekend, a game in which they technically scored five goals for the second time in the new year if you want to count Andrea Cambiaso’s own goal as such. The Bianconeri have won three of their last four games in all competitions and have only dropped points on three occasions — two draws and a dominant yet confusing loss to Lecce — since their Dec. 7 loss to Napoli in Naples.
Atalanta’s form on the whole has improved since Palladino took over, but the last couple of weeks have not been very kind to them. After starting 2026 with wins over Roma, Bologna and Torino, La Dea have won just one of their last five games in all competitions, including a 1-0 loss to Union Saint-Gilloise in the UCL league phase finale that could have gotten Atalanta into the top eight if they had won. That’s on top of a loss a week earlier to Athletic Club in the Champions League — which, as you can probably guess, was just as costly as the loss seven days later in Belgium.
And let’s not forget that the only reason why Atalanta didn’t get hammered by Como over the weekend is due to the efforts of Marco Carnesecchi in goal, preventing Cesc Febregas’ side from scoring despite a whopping 5.42 total in Expected Goals on the day.
So if there ever was a “good” time to be facing Atalanta in a one-off cup tie, this might be one of those instances considering its the first extended period of dropped points and frustrating results under Palladino. Now we just are about to find out if Juventus are the ones who add to Atalanta’s recent struggles or if it’s a second straight season in which the Coppa Italia quarterfinals is how far the Bianconeri go in the competition.
The winner of Thursday night’s matchup will face the winner of next Wednesday night’s quarterfinal between Bologna and Lazio at the Renato Dall’Ara.
TEAM NEWS
- Luciano Spalletti did not hold a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, therefore we don’t have any clues as to just how much of the typical Coppa Italia squad rotation will take place even though Juventus are facing a relatively strong opponent.
- Then again, we do know who’s out injured for Thursday night’s Coppa Italia quarterfinal matchup. With Daniele Rugani’s loan move to Fiorentina, there are only two players on the injury list: Dusan Vlahovic and (of course) Arek Milik.
- While he’s technically not considered injured by many in the Italian press, Kenan Yildiz is not expected to start against Atalanta on Thursday night. There are reports that Yildiz will be part of the traveling squad and potentially available off the bench in Bergamo. (That Juve traveling squad has not been announced as of this writing.)
- As is the norm, Mattia Perin is expected to be Juventus’ starter goal for his usual Coppa Italia assignment.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Oh, Juventus are playing Atalanta, you say?
And it’s the Coppa Italia in which there is bound to be some sort of squad rotation, right?
Well then that means we also get our latest chance to talk about our favorite former Atalanta player!
What? You were expecting Emil Holm?
(OK, maybe soon, but Spalletti doesn’t strike me as a manager who would start a player who arrived at the beginning of the week in an important Coppa Italia tie. Maybe I’ll be wrong, but I’m not counting on it.)
At this point, my own personal expectations for Juventus midfielder Teun Koopmeiners can basically be summed up like this: if it’s anything close to decent, then that’s just a bonus. That is because Koopmeiners, a year and a half into his time as a Juventus player, has completely failed to live up to what he did at Atalanta and the massive price tag in which the previous front office paid for him in the summer of 2024.
Koopmeiners is still the player that you hope to try and get so much more out of, but it’s just not happened outside of maybe a handful of games over the last 18 months. Things seemed to be working better for him as a member of the three-man defense, but now that he’s back in more of a midfield role it just feels like the same old issues are starting to come back to the forefront again.
Adding to the potential worries against Atalanta: He’s being tipped to start alongside Manuel Locatelli in midfield. In the small number of occurrences in which those two have played alongside each other, it has not exactly gone well. But the thing is, it’s not like Spalletti has a whole lot of other options in midfield outside of Koopmeiners if he were to rotate and try and give some guys some rest after an intense start to 2026.
The only thing I am certain of happening when it comes to the Koopmeiners-related area of concentration? The reception that he gets from the crowd in Bergamo will be just as frosty as it always is. That’s a stone-cold lock.
MATCH INFO
When: Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
Where: New Balance Stadium, Bergamo, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 8 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3 p.m. Eastern time, 2 p.m. Central time, 12 p.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: TLN (Canada); Premier Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Italia 1 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, Amazon Prime USA (United States); DAZN Canada; fubo Sports Network Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); Mediaset Infinity (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
