Just as the case was against Lecce last weekend, Juventus’ next opponent is one that has a disappointing result attached to them the last time the two teams played this season. The home draw to Parma the night before Halloween was what proved to be one of the many points that Juve dropped against lower-table opposition and a big reason why the Bianconeri are now in the situation they are now in.
So now, nearly six months later, the two clubs meet again, both with new managers and both trying to accomplish something very different but also important for their future.
As Juve head south to Parma, the race for the top four is still too close to call. With last weekend’s win over Lecce, Igor Tudor’s side entered the weekend with a two-point edge over fifth-place Bologna — who the Bianconeri will meet in a couple of weeks — for the final Champions League spot that Serie A has to offer. But that was before Bologna’s stoppage-time winner over league-leading Inter Milan — who now have no more room for error in the Scudetto race — Juventus will take the field at the Tardini in fifth place Monday night. (Plus, with Atalanta beating AC Milan later in the day Sunday, Juve also don’t have the chance to jump into third place with a win over Parma, either.)
At the same time, just like was the case with Lecce, Parma enter Monday night’s proceedings trying to do anything possible to improve their standing when it comes to not getting relegated, as Cristian Chivu — who took over for Fabio Pecchia in February — and his squad sit in 16th place and four points above the drop zone.
A little more than a week after facing the club that’s sitting in 17th place, now Juventus head out on the road to face the club that is sitting one place higher in 16th.
Parma has a wild form guide since the new year. They’ve only won one of their 14 games since the calendar turned over to 2025. More recently, though, they’ve recorded five straight draws, the two most recent coming against league-leading Inter Milan and Fiorentina. So while they’ve not won much at all over the last four months, they also haven’t been losing, either, with seven draws and six losses in 2025.
So it’s great, but it’s also not terrible — especially for a club trying to pick up some semblance of points consistently.
And if there’s a team that knows something about draws and playing to plenty of them, it’s certainly this Juventus team.
Although, that trend has lightened up with Tudor coming in for Thiago Motta during the March international break.
Juventus have won two of Tudor’s three games in charge. And, maybe more importantly, they’ve beaten both of the clubs (Genoa and Lecce) that we all expected them to beat even with the sudden change on the sidelines — which are the kind of results that Motta never really was able to achieve during his time in Turin. The changes that Tudor have made have mostly worked out for the better, even if some of the same issues from the Motta era are still popping up under Juventus’ new manager.
But the most important thing is that they’re picking up points consistent again. And, as they hit the middle part of this three-game run of fixtures against clubs just above or actually in the relegation zone, it’s imperative that Juventus continue to do so. The style of play has changed and, through three games, has gotten gradually better as the squad has gotten more time with Tudor. That was on display once again against Lecce last weekend.
So, again, it’s about keeping that positive momentum going during this soft spot in the schedule. Because in a couple of weeks, there’s the first of two games against direct competition for a spot in the top four. And then there’s another one. Then there’s the two final games of the season against a mid-table side (Udinese) and another team in the relegation zone (Venezia).
With six games to go, there’s 18 points still out there for the taking. In the majority of those six remaining games, Juventus will be the favorite no matter if it’s being played at the Allianz Stadium or away from home like Monday night’s trip to the Tardini.
So now it’s just about doing exactly what they did against Lecce — get the win and get back into the top four once again.
TEAM NEWS
- As Tudor said at his pre-match press conference Saturday, Juve have two big doubts for Monday night’s game: Kenan Yildiz (leg contusion) and Teun Koopmeiners (pain in his Achilles). Of the two, Tudor said that it’s Koopmeiners who is more likely to miss out on facing Parma, although final evaluations will happen Sunday before the team leaves for Emilia-Romagna.
- As it turned out, Koopmeiners was not called up to face Parma while Yildiz has made the trip with the rest of the traveling squad.
- Backup goalkeeper Mattia Perin is back in the squad after missing the last couple of games with a muscle injury.
- The other players who will be out injured aren’t a surprise: Federico Gatti and Samuel Mbangula, as well as the three long-term absences (Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik).
- Just as was the case last weekend against Lecce, the three Juventus players who are one yellow card away from suspension are: Andrea Cambiaso, Khephren Thuram and Timothy Weah.
- Juventus have won their last four away games at the Tardini in all competitions.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
There’s no Koopmeiners in the squad. Yildiz is expected to only be an option off the bench if he actually ends up playing against Parma. That means both positions behind Vlahovic are very much there for the taking, with Tudor having a couple of decisions to make.
One seems very logical like Tudor did against Roma a couple of weeks ago. The other, though? Well, that could be something we haven’t seen much of since the managerial change in Turin.
Photo by sportinfoto/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images
After his big start to life at Juventus, Randal Kolo Muani has come back down to earth in very quick fashion. The run of five goals in three games has turned out to be the only time in which the Frenchman on loan from Paris Saint-Germain has scored during his time in Turin. Obviously that’s not all on him considering how Juve played for a good chunk of time before the managerial change. But now with a manager who favors the guy that Motta certainly did not after Kolo Muani’s arrival, the distribution of playing time has certainly shifted back to the Serbian side of things.
But with Yildiz bruised up and Koopmeiners staying back in Turin, Monday night looks like it will be the first chance to play from the start for Kolo Muani under Tudor.
It will be in a different kind of role than he played in pretty much all of his Juventus appearances outside of the last two in which he’s come off the bench. It will certainly be less target man and potential isolation up front like we saw after his big start to his Juve career and more of potentially playing off Vlahovic and most likely Nico Gonzalez, who is expected to move up from his wingback position to a more advanced role with Koopmeiners out.
With how direct Tudor has played since taking over at Juventus, it could very well be something that plays into Kolo Muani’s strengths. You want to see him have the chance to use his pace more often. You want to see him making runs in the same way that Yildiz has. Maybe most important of all, you want to see him just be more involved than he was in the final games of the Motta era and utilize his skillset rather than feel like it’s being squandered.
It’s hard to say if Kolo Muani will be effective in this different kind of role than what he played for his first 2 1⁄2 months in Turin. But there’s only one way to find out — and with Juve’s two goal scorers from a week ago banged up, it seems like we’re about to.
MATCH INFO
When: Monday, April 21, 2025.
Where: Stadio Ennio Tardini, Parma, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo, foxsports.com, Fox Sports app (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, 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 Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
