The final month of the 2025-26 season has officially arrived. Juventus has four games, a little more than 360 minutes remaining and 12 points to try and obtain to secure qualification into the Champions League next year.
Juve got through their big three-game stretch without suffering a loss, collecting seven out of a possible nine points along the way. Coming out of that, the schedule the rest of the way looks a lot more forgiving in May as we saw over the course of much of April.
So that means one
thing and one thing only: Juventus take care of their business against teams all in the bottom half of the table the rest of the way and they’re qualifying for the Champions League next season.
Simple as that — at least on paper.
The first of those fixtures as we hit the first weekend of May involves Juventus facing off against 19th-place Hellas Verona, which was mathematically relegated to Serie B with Lecce’s win over Pisa on Friday night. (The gap is now 13 points between 19th and 17th with only 12 points left to try and win.) What that means for Verona’s state of mind as they make the trip to Turin for Sunday evening’s matchup at the Allianz Stadium remains to be seen, but the fact still remains that one of the worst teams in Serie A is going to be the opposition and a club in Juventus’ current situation of trying to secure Champions League qualification.
We know Luciano Spalletti won’t let his team fall into the trap of facing a team that has nothing left to play for — which might actually be a little tricky to manage knowing that a lot of these players are now probably going to be auditioning themselves for top-flight clubs come next season. Hellas Verona could very well be playing for pride … or they can potentially looked completely checked out based on how things have gone.
Fact is, Hellas Verona are bad. They are a bad team. They have been bad virtually the entire season, thus the reason why they’re going to be playing in Serie B next season.
Just how bad? Well, let’s find some “fun” numbers to take a look at.
- Hellas Verona have only won one game since Christmas. That was on March 8 against … Bologna?!
- Since that win over Bologna, Hellas Verona have lost five of six games.
- Since that win over Bologna, Hellas Verona have only scored one goal in their last six games.
- Over their last six games, Hellas Verona have the worst record in Serie A. Juventus, meanwhile, have the best over the course of that same six-game span.
So, yeah, after a tough three-game stretch in which Juventus got seven out of a possible nine points, this is about as soft of a landing as Spalletti probably could have hoped for. Juve aren’t facing a tough opponent in a resurgent Atalanta or Bologna. They won’t be facing a team that is tough to break down in the form of AC Milan.
But even that performance against Milan is one that Spalletti wasn’t exactly thrilled with.
““We brought home a result, but didn’t make an impact, and that left me with bellyache the next day,” Spalletti quipped during his pre-match press conference. “I told the team that, too.”
Juventus will take the field on Sunday knowing that Como played to a scoreless draw against Antonio Conte and Napoli and could very well go five points clear of the team that’s currently closest to them in the standings in fifth. They will also know that Roma still has to play come Monday night against a relatively safe Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico. Of the three teams in contention for fourth place who are entered the weekend separated by all of three points, Juventus are the ones who are still in the driver’s seat and can control their own destiny. They got more help on Saturday, and can take full advantage of it with a win over Hellas Verona.
Even if Roma beat Fiorentina and subsequently overtake Como to move into fifth place, they will still need plenty of help in the final three games to jump over Juventus. That is, of course, if Juventus take care of business this weekend and continue to get closer to wrapping up a spot in the Champions League next season.
“You finish fourth if you deserve to finish fourth,” Spalletti said. “We’ve maintained our standards and you shouldn’t focus on the maths, but on the day-to-day performances. We’re doing well, and we know what we’ve been through to be in this fight for fourth. We need to think about the Champions League, not fourth place. If you think about the former, you behave like a team that has something to prove.
“The Champions League rewards those who create chaos, not those who avoid it.”
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but things are far from a certainty just yet. Maybe we will feel differently about all of it in a couple of weeks, but for now Juventus need to do what they’ve done a majority of the time coming out of the March international break — win and keep trying to pull away from Como and Roma.
TEAM NEWS
- Spalletti actually held a press conference this weekend. How about that?!?!
- We were again presented with a week in which Kenan Yildiz did not train with the rest of the team all that often. Yildiz partially trained with the group on Wednesday, but has since returned to training with the rest of the group in full all of two days later. This could very well mean he’s coming off the bench again, but at least it’s not a situation like the last couple of weeks where he’s just getting in one full training session before Juventus actually play.
- When it comes to Yildiz, Spalletti said “Kenan’s done well in the last few training sessions and doesn’t feel any pain.”
- It’s been the same kind of deal when it comes to Khephren Thuram, who has been back in full training for a couple of days after being away from the rest of the group earlier in the week. Like Yildiz, it’s hard to know just how health Thuram is these days, but it’s pretty clear that he isn’t 100%.
- Dusan Vlahovic, like Yildiz, was the other big name to return to full training with the rest of the group on Friday. He will likely be an option off the bench this weekend just as he was against Milan seven days ago.
- The only two players who are out injured are Juan Cabal and Arek Milik. Both players are not expected to return this season.
- Jonathan David is expected to retain his spot in the starting lineup even though Spalletti said that Vlahovic is available (but ultimately still limited in terms of minutes he can play).
- Just as the case as the last couple of weeks, both Gleison Bremer and Lloyd Kelly are one yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
You’re playing one of the worst teams in the league with one of the worst defenses. You’re trying not to make things super interesting and letting a team that just got officially relegated hang around for very long.
What’s important? Goals.
Specifically, scoring goals to get a lead. Or at least contributing to your team finding the back of the net.
While we aren’t totally sure if somebody like Yildiz will be back in the starting lineup against Hellas Verona, seeing David start at the top of whatever formation Spalletti ends up going with won’t feel like much of a surprise at all. That’s partly because there’s no other option now that the false 9 tinkering with Yildiz and/or Jérémie Boga seems to have been put on the shelf for the time being.
Plus, David is just looking more like a useful piece compared to where he was a couple of months ago.
Yes, he is still not the perfect striker for this team. But you look at how he has played in recent weeks compared to other parts of this season and he’s simply contributing more to the overall end product. That doesn’t mean he’s suddenly scoring a big number of goals — he’s still got just six goals in Serie A on the season — but he’s contributing. He’s doing it his way — dropping deep, trying to link his teammates into the attack and not just simply being some sort of volume shooter.
But, at least recently, David looks to be a contributor. And compared to other parts of the season, that’s a step in the right direction.
Who knows what that means for the final month of the season, but David can try and finish these final four games strong and let the media narratives run when it comes to his future. (Well, they have been for weeks now.) But you can see that certain players are better when David is on the field. Look at what Weston McKennie does when he’s able to link up with David. Look at some of the combinations that he’s done with other attacking players lately. David doesn’t have the counting stats that other strikers do, but he’s been far from a completely inept player in recent games.
When David is productive in one way or another, then they are a better team because of it. And if he does that over these final four games, then Juventus have the chance to finish in the top four and get into the Champions League (and hopefully with room to sapre).
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, May 3, 2026.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 1:.m. Central time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada); TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, Amazon Prime USA, DAZN USA, fuboTV, Fox One, Fox Sports app, FoxSports.com (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italy, Sky Go Italia, NOW TV (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.
