The final stretch of the 2025-26 season is officially upon us, my friends.
And just like last season, Juventus’ Champions League qualification hopes hang on just how many points they can pick over the course of these final eight games. And in even a more extreme case when compared to last season, Juventus will need a whole lot of help to jump over fourth-place Como and then potentially stay there to ensure they qualify for the Champions League.
Ah, so simple, right?
Well, after an international break
in which Italy has had about as little happiness as your grumpiest family relative — and then some! — now we return to the regularly scheduled final stretch of the season.
The catch? Because of it being Easter Sunday, we have to wait a day longer than you probably originally thought when the international break began for Juventus to start what hopefully turns in their final push to finish in the top four.
They will do that on Monday evening at the Allianz against a club in Genoa who are in an interesting position in the Serie A table. Not so much as they entered the weekend sitting in 13th, but more to do with the fact that they are six points above the relegation zone — meaning they are almost certainly a few points away from securing safety but also a few bad results in a row for potentially having to sweat out the the final month of the season. That means you don’t necessarily have a team that is just playing out the string because they are a provincial side that is comfortably mid-table but also not completely safe just yet.
Plus, if it wasn’t for Genoa manager Daniele De Rossi getting a huge win over his former club Roma just a few short weeks ago, this could have been a fixture in which Juventus might have been in sixth place and having Champions League qualification hopes looking even more grim than they might appear now.
Yes, the same De Rossi that Juve manager Luciano Spalletti called “one of my footballing sons” during his pr-match press conference on Saturday.
Spalletti and Juventus will know that Roma got pummeled at San Siro against league leaders Inter Milan and what Como’s result in the unusual Monday lunchtime kickoff prior to taking the field in Turin. They could very well get some help from Udinese against a streaking Como side, but most important Spalletti’s squad is handling their own business in the event of getting the much-needed help that has to take place at some point over these next eight weeks for the Bianconeri to jump back into the top four.
At this point, it’s hard to know if it will actually happen.
But what we do know is that Juventus have to take advantage of their remaining games against provincial sides like Genoa are because the schedule the rest of the way isn’t going t be so kind. The next three games after facing Genoa are all against teams that are very much capable of beating Juventus.
If we see the same kind of Juventus that showed up and struggled mightily in their draw with Sassuolo prior to the international break, then it will be tough sledding for Spalletti’s squad on Monday. And if that’s the case, then the incredibly tough task of trying to get back into the top four at this stage of the season will become even greater of a hill to climb.
We can probably all do the math in our head when it comes to the potential combinations of results when it comes to Monday’s games. Juventus could potentially be one point behind Como at the end of the day. They could also be a depressing seven points behind if they lay an absolute dud against Genoa. That is why Juve’s room for error when it comes to chasing Como down is basically gone in total. They need to win as many of their final eight games as possible and hope that the most in-form team Serie A currently has somehow slows down.
The final stretch for Juventus starts on Monday.
No better way to put the very, very bad developments over the international break in the rear and try and lock back in at the club level than with a valuable three points no matter what ends up happening at the Friulu earlier in the day.
TEAM NEWS
- Something that we haven’t been able to say basically all season: During training on Friday, Spalletti had every single player available. Seriously, it happened. There are currently no injured players on the Juventus roster, although that is likely to change because these things happen in football.
- As much as somebody like Dusan Vlahovic has been able to train consistently over the international break, Spalletti said it’s still very unlikely that the Serbian No. 9 starts against Genoa on Monday. “I think it’s possible he can help us during the match,” Spalletti said of Vlahovic, who returned after four months out injured in Juve’s 1-1 draw against Sassuolo before the international break.
- With Vlahovic still not an option to start, it’s likely that Spalletti sticks with Jérémie Boga as a false 9. Or maybe it’s Kenan Yildiz who is tried there once again.
- Other than that, starting lineup Spalletti rolls out is expected to be much like he has used in recent games.
- There are a pair of Juventus players, Weston McKennie and Lloyd Kelly, who are a yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
There’s been a ton of focus on Juve’s attack when it comes to the Bianconeri’s final eight games of the season — and for good reason considering how up and down production has been outside of Yildiz.
But just as important is Juventus’ defense getting right down the stretch. And when it comes to that defense, it’s pretty clear who they need to start to turn a corner again and look like his old self if they want any chance to of being a much more solid unit at the back.
Yes, it’s not breaking news that Juventus need Gleison Bremer to be more like the player we’ve known him to be prior to the last few months. If Bremer is not the Bremer of old, then Juventus’ defense is just not anywhere close to being even a solid unit as compared to when he’s playing like the player he was prior to either of his knee injuries over the last 18 months.
The problem has been, seeing that player from the pre-injury days has been hit and miss. And especially lately, it’s been more miss than anything else, with a good number of the goals that Juventus have allowed seeing Bremer play a rather big role in them happening.
Juventus are only six goals allowed away from matching last season’s total. Considering that number was in the mid-30s, that’s nothing to exactly be happy about. Yet if Juventus continue to not record clean sheets over these final eight games, then they are likely to either match that or even surpass it, and as a result having a goals allowed total close to 40 being something that just speaks to how inconsistent this team has been.
This is where Bremer comes in.
Not hard to figure it out, right? If we see the Bremer of the last month or two continue to be around, then it’s going to be tough for Juventus to win games — even against the provincial sides like Genoa. But maybe, just maybe, an international break in which Bremer has been back with the Brazilian national team for the first time in a long time — and scored a goal while wearing that beautiful new Jordan Brand kit — will be the thing that starts to turn things back in a positive direction.
It’s safe to say that Juve desperately need it if they want Champions League football next season. And to just ensure that Bremer is 100% a Juve player next season, too.
MATCH INFO
When: Monday, April 6, 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, 11 a.m. Central time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, Amazon Prime USA, DAZN USA, fuboTV (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.
