Juventus won its fourth-straight Italian Serie A title on Saturday after picking up a routine 1-0 win over Sampdoria thanks to an Arturo Vidal goal but the impact was massive, with Juventus pulling 17 points clear in the table with four league games remaining. Focus can now switch to the Champions League semi-final clash against Real Madrid next week.
The win is a triumph for Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri, who took over from Antonio Conte in the summer. The news that Allegri was replacing the popular Conte was greeted by protests by Juventus fans, but was not welcome at first by Juve fans,
“We believed in the championship from the start,” Allegri told the club website. “We have been in the lead since the early days. Clearly in the season we can get difficult moments but we must not lose sight of the certainties. For example, when we drew with Inter (in January) then we went on to win against Napoli, maybe not playing very well but taking home an important victory.
“We have been good at understanding the periods of the season. Each game is useful, even those in which we concede goals, we need to keep up the concentration. To grow you have to go through lots of defending. There is no shame, because they play well in defence and apply great match play on offence.”
Allegri slowly won over the Juve fans, by not only guiding them to a fourth, and 34th overall, Scudetto, but maybe more importantly to a Champions League semi-final. For all its domestic dominance, Juventus has only two European titles, after losing in the final a records five times. For a club the size of The Old Lady, there should be more European silverware in the trophy cabinet. If Allegri can win a European trophy in Turin, Juventus fan will be saying Conte who?
