What a month!
Juventus had an incredible start to the new year with a fantastic run of results in January. New coach Luciano Spalletti has hit the ground running at the club as the team is scoring a lot of goals (14 goals in six games in January) while maintaining a solid defense (only two goals conceded in those six games).
There’s a real sense of optimism and belief at the club that we haven’t felt since the honeymoon period of the Thiago Motta era. While a Scudetto challenge is probably too ambitious
and too late, there’s finally a feeling that Juventus are a team to be taken seriously again.
As always, though, it’s easy to get carried away. Like I said, we remember flashes of this optimism and positivity during the early days of the Motta era — and we saw how that ended. And despite all the good vibes, we’re still just a point ahead of Roma for fourth place at the time of writing so there’s still much to be done and many games to be played until I can definitively say that we’re back.
Team Effort
Juventus started 2026 with a strange 1-1 draw against Lecce. It was one of the most relentlessly dominant performances we’ve had in a long time, as we created numerous chances and forced save after save from goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone. And yet, we conceded the first goal after a terrible error from Andrea Cambiaso. The defender passed it straight to Lecce player Lameck Banda, who danced his way past Gleison Bremer and struck a perfect shot into goal. It was Lecce’s first true chance of the game, just on the stroke of half time.
The Bianconeri maintained their dominance after the break and it paid off with a quick equalizer from Weston “Just-Extend-His-Contract-Already” McKennie after good work from Kenan Yildiz. Jonathan David then won a penalty after the referee harshly judged that defender Mohamed Kaba deliberately struck the ball with his hand in the box. David took one of the least confident penalties I’ve seen in a while and, as the shot went through the middle of the goal, Falcone easily saved it with his feet. Juventus huffed and puffed and dominated the remainder of the game but despite Lecce creating nothing all game, the final score was 1-1.
We returned to winning ways in the next game against Sassuolo away from home. Pierre Kalulu sent a hopeful cross into the box that defender Tarik Muharemovic headed into goal for an unfortunate (but brilliant!) own goal. In what is typically a difficult game, Spalletti’s team controlled the game with ease as Sassuolo barely got out of their own half. David redeemed himself for his woeful penalty miss against Lecce with a man-of-the-match performance that helped put the game to bed. First, he played an excellent ball through to Fabio Miretti who broke past the Sassuolo defense and scored with a powerful shot into the far corner.
Then, the Canadian scored the team’s third goal after his pressing and incredible workrate forced Jay Idzes into a terrible backpass that David took advantage of. He kept his cool and rounded the goalkeeper to finish in an empty net, to the joy of almost the entire Juventus team who ran out to celebrate with him. A feel-good moment that ended a fantastic game: 3-0.
We carried this positivity forward into the next game, a thumping 5-0 victory over Cremonese. It started with a comical opening goal when Miretti fired a thunderous volley from a corner at goal and it hit… the back of Gleison Bremer as it bounced into goal. The Brazilian was awarded one of the easiest goals of his career. David continued his resurgence in form with his second goal in as many games after Thuram went on one of his trademark storming dribbles from midfield and played the ball to David just inside the box. The Canadian’s first touch created the perfect scoring opportunity and his second touch was a confident side-footed shot into the far corner.
Then came a bizarre moment of controversy. When Manuel Locatelli made a sliding tackle in the box on Dennis Johnsen, he seemed to catch the Cremonese player on his ankle in the follow-through. The referee called for a penalty kick but, after VAR review, surprisingly judged that Locatelli (barely) won the ball first so he canceled the penalty kick and ordered play to carry on. To me, it was a generous interpretation of the term “won the ball first” given that 9/10 such tackles are judged to be a foul even if the player wins the ball first because the follow-through is too rough. But hey, I’m just some guy.
Somewhat cruelly, Cremonese then conceded a penalty for an unfortunate handball in the box. Yildiz saw his penalty tipped onto the post by keeper Emil Audero but Yildiz scored the rebound.
Miretti was one of the stars of the match as he provided another assist for the fourth goal. His perfect through ball reached McKennie who rounded goalkeeper Audero and poked the ball towards goal. Defender Filippo Terracciano tried to slide in to stop it from crossing the line but ended up sliding it into goal for an own goal. McKennie did get his goal 20 minutes later when he headed in a perfect cross from Kalulu: 5-0!
The party stopped in the next game away versus Cagliari. It was just “one of those days.” Cagliari had 22% ball possession and only 2 shots all game, but one of those was a cracking volleyed goal from a set piece from Luca Mazzitelli. Juventus labored in vain with 22 shots (seven on target) but were just painfully wasteful and, truth be told, didn’t create enough clear-cut chances to deserve a goal. We thought we had a good opportunity to score when Miretti won a penalty in the first half, but the referee judged that the midfielder had, in fact, committed the foul on the Cagliari player rather than vice-versa. A frustrating 1-0 loss.
We took a page from Cagliari’s book in the 2-0 Champions League victory over Benfica in the next game. We had less possession, fewer shots, and fewer passes than the Portuguese team but still won the game. The first half was a bit of a non-event but Thuram scored with a great driven shot and McKennie, scoring for the third consecutive Champions League game doubled our lead after a great one-two with David. Benfica almost got their way back in the game when Bremer committed an unlucky foul in the box to give away a penalty, but Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis slid while kicking the ball and completely skied his shot.
Then came probably the most satisfying victory of the month: a thumping 3-0 win at home against Napoli. The Bianconeri dominated the game from start to finish against an injury-ravaged Napoli. David scored again after collecting Locatelli’s improvised backheel assist, showing great strength to hold off Leonardo Spinazzola, and finishing past goalkeeper Alex Meret. Despite our dominance, there was a creeping feeling that with just a one-goal lead and our lack of ability to kill off games, Napoli would find a way to score a goal against the run of play.
Instead, Juan Jesus did us a favor and calmed all our fears. He played a disastrous backpass straight to Miretti, who played it to Yildiz. The Turkish superstar held off the defender and scored a tidy goal to double our lead. Substitute Filip Kostic, playing on the right of all places, joined the party when he collected a loose ball on the edge of the box and scored with a thunderous left-footed shot in the 86th minute. A complete performance and a dominant victory against the defending champions.
The final game of the month wasn’t quite as exciting as it was effective: a goalless draw in the final League Phase match of this season’s Champions League campaign. There really was barely any action in this game as Spalletti rotated his team knowing that a spot in the top eight, i.e. direct qualification for the Round of 16, was out of his hands and would, frankly, require a miracle. His decision was vindicated as the results didn’t fall our way, meaning that there was little point in exerting too much energy to go for a victory. We play Galatasaray in the playoff round.
Juventus Women
Juventus Women started the year by doing what it does best: winning silverware. This time, they won the Supercoppa by beating AS Roma 2-1 in Pescara. Manuela Giugliano scored Roma’s only goal from a low cross from Evelyne Viens but Amalie Vangsgaard equalized for Juventus by converting from a loose ball in the box. The winner came from a moment of magic from who else but Cristiana Girelli. The striker somehow backheeled a shot from Martina Lenzini to score the game’s final goal and secure another trophy for the team!
After a 2-1 comeback victory against Roma, we fell to a 2-1 comeback loss against Inter in the league. Cecilia Salvai gave us the lead in the fourth minute with a header from a corner but Karolina Vilhjalmsdottir equalized for Inter just ten minutes later. Marija Milinkovic scored the winner after converting from another Tessa Wullaert corner kick in the 35th minute.
It seems that 2-1 was the most common scoreline of the month. The Bianconere beat Napoli by that scoreline in the first leg of the Coppa Italia quarter finals on January 22. Vangsgaard put us in the lead when she took advantage of an error in the Napoli defense to score. Cecilie Floe equalized for Napoli immediately after the break but Girelli scored a late penalty to give us a tough 2-1 victory!
Next up, we secured an easy 3-0 victory against Parma in the league. Bonansea scored a header from a corner early in the game and it seemed like that was going to be the only goal in the game until Vangsgaard and Stolen Godo scored in the last 10 minutes of the game (the latter a fantastic free kick) to make it a comfortable victory.
Another day, another 2-1 victory. Juventus progressed to the semi finals of the Coppa Italia thanks to second-half goals from Girelli and Thomas; Kinga Kozak scored a late consolation goal for Napoli.
Transfers
The winter transfer window eased to a soft, non-slammed close on Feb. 2 (for Italy, at least). Here’s a roundup of all the transfers (that I could find) that Juventus completed and notable contract negotiations:
- There were whispers that Federico Chiesa could return to Juventus but eventually those rumors never became reality. Instead, we got Ivory Coast winger Jérémie Boga on loan with option to buy. He will play as the backup to Kenan Yildiz, who looks closer to a contract extension every day.
- Speaking of contracts, McKennie has become one of Juve’s most important players and yet … he’s out of contract this summer. Thankfully, it seems like both parties are restarting negotiations to extend his contract but summer is only a few months away…
- Daniele Rugani has joined relegation-battling Fiorentina on loan till the end of the season. Hopefully, he’ll help them win their battle against relegation.
- Despite interest in their services, both Vasilije Adžić and goalkeeper Mattia Perin remained at Juventus. Both players rarely play for the team but given that Adžić is a recent graduate from the Next Gen squad and Perin is a long-time (brilliant!) backup goalkeeper, that is not abnormal.
- It briefly looked like versatile Celta Vigo defender Oscar Mingueza might join Juventus, but it’s unclear if that will happen come the summertime. He’s out of contract in the summer so the most likely scenario is that he’ll run out his contract and join for free in a few months. The same situation is the case for Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi.
- Juventus submitted a bid to purchase Crystal Palace wantaway striker Jean-Philippe Mateta but the English team rejected our bid. Mateta instead looked like he was AC Milan for more than €30 million, but that deal fell through after he failed his medical due to a knee issue.
- Eleonora Ferraresi of Juventus Women spent the first half of the season on loan at Ternana and will spend the rest of the season on loan at Roma. (But not the better-known Roma. This is Res Roma in Serie B.)
- Midfielder Cristina Libran joins Swiss team Servette on loan until the end of this season.
- We also tried to get Fenerbahçe striker Youssef En-Nesyri to join but apparently the Moroccan didn’t want to join the Bianconeri.
- American midfielder Allison Perry joins Juventus from the U.S. college ranks at Mississippi State.
- Juventus tried (we sure tried a lot this winter) to get an old friend back to town but his club(s) didn’t cooperate. Randal Kolo Muani wanted to come back to Juventus but both Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain blocked the move.
- There was lots of movement with the goalkeepers this winter. Juventus legend Pauline Peyraud-Magnin left Juventus after 4.5 seasons at the club while goalkeeper, Alessia Capelletti, also left the club to finish the season with Como on loan. Larissa Rusek joined Juventus from FC Nurnberg.
- Elsa Pelgander joined Djurgarden after a mere eight appearances for the club while Estelle Cascarino joined West Ham on loan till the end of the season.
- The much-maligned Douglas Luiz did manage to complete a loan deal involving three teams as he terminated his stay at Nottingham Forest and returned to his former club Aston Villa on loan until the end of the season, where he very well might just win a Premier League title …
- Another player looking to restart his career is Joao Mario, who has joined Bologna on loan until the end of the season. Swedish defender Emil Holm joins the Bianconeri as part of the deal; he joins on loan with the option to buy.
