Ninety minutes to go.
The second edition of the Champions League league phase is down to its final matchday. And just as was the case 12 months ago, we’re entering a final day of the league phase in which there will be all 36 teams playing at the same time and there will likely be plenty of chaos and movement in the table before the 18th and final triple blast sounds on Matchday 8.
That chaos element could very well be even more of the case this time around.
Why? Because the way the league phase table
is currently look, with all of three points separating Real Madrid in third and Juventus in 15th, the potential for chaos seems rather high as clubs jockey for position one last time.
For Juventus, that final league phase fixture comes in the Principality against a Monaco side that is hanging on for their Champions League life and enter Wednesday night’s matchup sitting in 21st place. For Monaco, a positive result likely means they’ll sneak into the play-off round, but a loss pretty much leaves their fate in Europe to what the other teams around them — including our old buddy Antonio Conte and Napoli down in 25th — during the course of the final matchday. But when it comes to Luciano Spalletti and Juve, they may already be in the knockout phase, but there’s the chance for three more points — and if that does happen, then the chance to move even further up the league phase table with their fourth consecutive win is very much a possibility.
There’s just the fact that Juventus have a chance at being one of the top seeds in the play-off round — or maybe even more than that — was something that didn’t exactly feel all that possible when Spalletti took over at the end of October and saw his new club play to a draw against Sporting a few days later.
But what has happened over the next two-plus months has played a big reason as to why Juve are where they are in the Champions League table now.
Juventus’ three European wins under Spalletti have been very different kinds of victories. They had to do a wild second-half comeback against Bodø/Glimt. They then had to use what felt like all of their patience possible to see off Pafos. Then, this past week, they got a solid if not unspectacular 2-0 win over Benfica to clinch a spot in the knockout rounds. They’ve come in different ways, but Juve are still getting wins in Europe — which is something that wasn’t happening during the first half of the league phase schedule under Igor Tudor.
So now, as we head into the final 90 minutes of said UCL league phase, it’s the hope that one more time three points can be earned as you let the dust settle elsewhere with everybody playing at once.
Monaco enter Wednesday night’s league phase finale with fitness concerns up and down the roster. That is especially true in defense for manager Sébastien Pocognoli, who replaced took over in mid-October following Monaco’s turbulent start to the 2025-26 season. They’re coming off a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Real Madrid, a result that ended Monaco’s five-game unbeaten run in the Champions League.
But, it bears repeating: Monaco are hanging on for their European lives on Wednesday night. Any sort of slip-up and they could very well be slipping even further down the table and potentially out of the competition entirely.
It’s been nearly a decade since Juventus and Monaco last played. Those were much better days in the Champions League, with the 2017 matchup being what proved to be a head-to-head tie that Juve won to make their second final under Max Allegri in three years.
This time around, Spalletti is just trying to get one more win out of this team in the league phase and hope for the best potential finish in the table because of it. Just as was the case over the weekend, Spalletti’s squad will be facing a team that is extremely short-handed due to injuries, and taking full advantage of that will be a huge thing for a team that is looking like it’s on the right track heading into a very important February.
TEAM NEWS
- Three players are out injured for Juventus’ trip to Monaco: Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani and Arek Milik.
- Spalletti said at his pre-match press conference that there will be changes in the starting lineup. He didn’t say how much rotation there will be, but there will be some, he noted. He did mention two names who will certainly be coming into the starting lineup: Teun Koopmeiners — who was alongside Spalletti at the press conference — and Loïs Openda.
- During his pre-match press conference, Spalletti noted that Gleison Bremer has played quite a bit since returned from injury last month. What that means for his status in the starting lineup against Monaco remains to be seen, but it certainly is something that Spalletti is aware of when it comes to his best defender.
- Despite the winning trend continuing over the weekend, Spalletti continued to hammer the fact that he feels like this Juventus squad still has room for improvement as they enter their final fixture of January.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Spalletti, in a rare occurence since he took over as Juventus manager, tipped his hand when it came to a couple of his starting lineup choices.
So, with that little gift presented to us, we will talk about one of those players who will be coming back into the starting lineup. (Surprising, ain’t it?!?!)
The last time we heard anything Spalletti and Openda related, it was the “pat” on the check heard around Italy before the Belgian forward came on as a substitute against Benfica. It’s at a point in the season that Jonathan David has become Spalletti’s preferred choice up front, with Openda’s last start coming a month ago on Dec. 27 against Pisa. Since then, David has scored in multiple games while Openda has failed to replicate the kind of performance he had when he was on the scoresheet against Roma on Dec. 20.
But, as Spalletti clearly said, this is going to be Openda’s night to make something happen up front.
And in true “Spalletti also feels like a dad” kind of fashion, this is what he had to say about Openda during the pre-match press conference on Tuesday:
“He has this nice boy persona that in my view limits him a little bit. He feels the pressure, many things get to him, he struggles to relax into the game. I think, giving him the right space, sooner or later he will resolve those difficulties that he has. And tomorrow might be the time he gets that space.”
That “right kind of space” comment is what could be used to Juventus’ advantage. Monaco need to get a win to ensure that they’re in the Champions League play-off round. They will surely try and push for goals because they’ve got so many absences in defense and have actually created a decent amount of chances during their other matchups in the league phase. But when it comes to a situation where you know a win is the only thing that ensures you’re not watching the rest of this season’s Champions League from home, that can open up plenty of spaces for your opponent to run into.
Enter Openda and his speed. You know, just like we saw against Roma last month.
That is where Openda has the chance to excel more than David because he’s simply much more of that kind of forward. How Spalletti plays it will be interesting to see because the Roma win can be a prime example of what things can look like when the tactics are more to Openda’s profile — and then it all works.
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.
Where: Stade Louis II, Principality of Monaco.
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: Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 252 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); Disocvery+ (United Kingdom); Sky Go Italia (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.
