We all knew it would be unlikely that Juventus would get the necessary help they needed to make it into the Champions League on Sunday. But on a chaotic Matchday 38, the way Juventus’ European fate would be sealed would be unlike anyone expected it.
Serious crowd trouble marred the season-ending Derby della Mole. After a Juventus fan ended up in the hospital in critical condition during a confrontation outside the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Juventus’ Ultras in the away end attracted the attention
of captain Manuel Locatelli and insisted that the game be abandoned. What followed was a delay that lasted more than an hour, during which the other four games on the schedule that would affect the Champions League and relegation fights (the two overlapped) were eventually allowed to kick off by the league. When it became clear that the game would go ahead, the Ultras abandoned the away section, leaving the team with no support in an away Derby that, at that point, was still vital to win.
The Bianconeri led 1-0 at halftime thanks to a Dusan Vlahovic strike, but by the time the second half kicked off the rest of the games were done, and Juve had only gotten half of the help they needed. While AC Milan had shockingly blown an early lead to lose 2-1 against Cagliari at home, Como had hammered Cremonese 4-1, and Roma had escaped a 10-man Hellas Verona side, sealing a 2-0 win in stoppage time.
With the game now only meaningful for pride and to decide between fifth and sixth place, Juve still pushed on and were up 2-0 less than 10 minutes after the restart thanks to Vlahovic’s second. But Torino got one back on a corner at the hour mark, and shortly afterward Vlahovic, who had had to pass a late fitness test to start, was withdrawn, taking with him the push of the forward line. Juve wouldn’t seriously threaten the Torino goal again until stoppages, and another botched corner saw the Granata level the game six minutes from time.
In the end, it felt like an appropriate end to a slog of a 2025-26 season that was marked by Juve’s frequent inability to come up clutch and beat teams they ought to beat. Now they’ll be condemned to next year’s Europa League, a serious financial shortfall, and a very uncertain future.
Apart from the uncertainty over Vlahovic coming out of training on Saturday, Luciano Spalletti was missing his two best players. Kenan Yildiz was out with a calf injury, while Bremer was serving a suspension for yellow card accumulation. He readjusted back to a 3-4-2-1 for the final match. After another mistake from Michele Di Gregorio last week, it was Mattia Perin who took the gloves in the starting XI. Federico Gatti started in place of Bremer, flanked by Pierre Kalulu and Lloyd Kelly in the back three. Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso started in the wing-back spots, while Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram — another man pushing through a knock — made up the midfield. Francisco Conceição and Jérémie Boga started in support of Vlahovic in the attack.
Torino manager Roberto D’Aversa had led the Granata through some good home form as the season closed. Chilean defender Guillermo Maripán was suspended, with Luca Marianucci, Tino Anjorin, and Zakaria Aboukhlal on the treatment table. He went with a 3-4-1-2 setup. Alberto Paleari started in goal behind the defensive tri0 of Ardian Ismajli, Enzo Ebosse, and Saúl Coco. Marcus Pedersen and Rafa Obrador took station on the wings, with Givdas Gineitis and Emirhan Ilkhan in the double pivot. Nikola Vlasic took up station as the trequartista behind the duo of Duvan Zapata and Giovanni Simeone.
The beginning of the match was chaotic, with both teams throwing themselves at each other and the ball. Torino picked up a pair of early corners, but couldn’t do anything with them. Neither team managed to really take full control of the match.
After 20 minutes, Boga and Vlahovic were both on the wrong end of blocks by Torino defenders following a good passing combination that led the Ivorian into the box. A few minutes later, Juve were ahead.
It was Kalulu who started things, picking up the ball after Locatelli had been shoved aside as referee Luca Zufferli played the advantage. He played square to Thuram, who carried the ball forward and found Vlahovic in a pocket of space. Immediately surrounded by no less than five Torino players, he chopped the ball to deaden it and took his shot. It took a deflection of Ebosse and bounced past an already-committed Paleari to give Juventus an advantage.
A defensive miscue in the 31st minute nearly saw Torino level the score, but Zapata leapt for the ball and skewed it wide when Simeone was in a better position for the cross. Two minutes later, Zapata spotted Simeone with clear space between himself and Perin, but Gatti made a massive interception to prevent the one-on-one. Only a few moments later Kalulu sent a beautiful cross into Torino’s box, only for Vlahovic to blaze his header just over the crossbar.
D’Aversa was quick to turn to his bench, bringing on Cesare Casadei at the break. By that point Juve’s fate had been decided, but they still came out looking determined to at least end the season on their terms. Cambiaso forced Paleari into a diving parry after Torino turned the ball over deep in their own half, then Locatelli slammed a first-time shot that just missed the near post.
It was Vlahovic who widened the lead just two minutes later. Vlahovic released Conceição on the counter and then charged in after him. The Portuguese led him into the right channel and the big Serb surprised Paleari by taking the shot first-time with his right foot, rolling it past his outstretched hand and giving Juve what seemed like a settled lead.
D’Aversa quickly went to his bench again to send on Che Adams for Zapata, but it was his first sub who made it a game again, taking advantage of some awful marking by Cambiaso to slam a corner back across the grain — the 17th time this season that Juventus had conceded a goal on their opponents’ first shot on target.
The poor marking clearly stood out to Spalletti, who quickly withdrew Cambiaso for Emil Holm. Vlahovic, likely on a minutes count, also came off for Jonathan David, and it was at this point that the match seemed to turn a bit.
Not long after coming on, David summed up his season in a nutshell by getting into a dangerous position on the left side of the box, only to slip and fall before he could do anything with it. In the 78th minute, another Toro sub, Alieu Njie, fired a powerful shot from the right channel only to be denied by Perin, who was protected from Matteo Prati’s followup by Kelly’s block.
It was another corner in the 84th minute that completed the collapse. Casadei was involved again, this time easily beating David for another powerful header. This time Perin made a great save, but could only parry the ball into the middle of the box, where Adams hit the rebound with a volley. The Scot was given the goal, but I’m not entirely convinced that the shot would’ve been on target had it not hit Holm and deflected back and over the head of the helpless Perin.
Locatelli attempted to respond immediately, firing a volley over the bar that, given the degree of difficulty, wasn’t an egregious miss. Holm wanted to redeem his deflection and forced Paleari to tip a long-range effort over in stoppage time, but neither team was able to fashion another chance, and the curtain came down on Juventus’ season with a whimper.
