As Juventus made their way to Bologna last weekend, they knew they had a slight advantage over the rest of the competition in the race to finish in the top four. It was a single point, but it was an advantage nonetheless.
A week later, Juve are still in fourth, but they’ve got company — and more than one team, too.
The slim advantage that Juventus had a week ago is about as razor thin as it gets now. As Juventus get set to face Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday evening in another six-pointer in the race for the top four, the only reason as to why they still stake a claim to fourth place is on goal differential over Roma in fifth. Lazio’s right there with their hated city rivals, too, with all three of those teams level on 63 points entering Matchday 36. It’s the second of back-to-back fixtures against a direct rival for the top four that Igor Tudor’s squad will have to try and figure out with a very shorthanded roster — injuries, aren’t they fun? — following last weekend’s draw with Bologna.
If last Sunday was one of the biggest games left on Juventus’ schedule, then what does it make this one?
Yeah, you can probably figure out where this is going.
Now, Bologna have already played their 36th game of the 2024-25 season Friday night, with their 3-1 loss against a somewhat resurgent yet still wildly unpredictable AC Milan at San Siro meaning that there won’t be a fourth team sitting on 63 points when Juve take the field at the Stadio Olimpico. That could end up being the thing that takes Bologna out of the running for fourth place, or things could end up going their way even with the loss based on how the other results going this weekend.
No matter what, though, this is the same kind of situation as Juventus had last weekend against Bologna: You win and you’re either holding serve when it comes to the standings or potentially improving your situation in fourth if the other results go your way. We know that a draw against Bologna and the wins from Lazio and then Roma meant that the tight race for the top four became even tighter. (Somehow that’s possible!)
So now this trip to Rome — which has been a rather popular place to be the last couple of days — is the new biggest game of the season even though Tudor downplayed a little bit of its importance during his pre-match press conference Friday afternoon.
A result like they got at the Olimpico a couple of weeks ago against Roma probably won’t be enough to see Juventus end the extended weekend in fourth place. For a team that controls its own destiny when it comes to finishing in the top four, there’s only so much leeway in which Tudor’s squad actually has. Any potential slip-up now run the risk of seeing Juve drop back into fifth or sixth place because things are so close right now.
Juventus will face a Lazio side that has been able to stay in the race for the top four despite the fact their home form has not been great both lately and the season as a whole. Based solely on results on their home turf this season, Lazio has just the ninth-best record in Serie A, slightly ahead of points collected by Italian heavyweights Como and Torino. In their last five games at the Olimpico, Lazio have five draws, with the most recent being a late comeback effort against Parma just a few of days after the relegation battlers beat Juve.
Lazio’s last win at home took place Feb. 9 against now-relegated Monza.
That’s a long time to go without a win on your home field. For all of Juventus’ struggles over the last couple of months and the season as a whole, they can’t even stake claim to going three months without a win at home.
Maybe Juventus can extend that run of struggles at home Lazio has had to endure since mid-February. If they do, it will certainly go a long way in helping Juve keep hold of fourth place. But if not, then a complicated final couple weeks of the season will become even more of just that — and that’s something nobody around here wants to see.
TEAM NEWS
- Kenan Yildiz will be serving the second game of his two-match suspension for his red card against Monza two weeks ago. This will be the first game he misses in his 20s after leaving the teenage ranks this past Sunday.
- The injury news coming out of the draw with Bologna: Andrea Cambiaso will be out for at least this weekend and potentially next week’s matchup with Udinese after having to come off with a thigh muscle injury in the second half.
- Tudor will have two options back in the squad as compared to when Juve played Bologna, as both Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Gatti have been included in the traveling squad to Rome. Tudor, however, was somewhat bullish on Gatti’s availability, saying at his pre-match press conference that the Italian defender has been included in the squad even though he’s a bit of a question mark this weekend.
- One player who was hoping to be available this weekend won’t be — and that’s Teun Koopmeiners, who is still dealing with pain related to his Achilles injury he picked up against Lecce. This will be the fourth straight game that the Dutchman has missed.
- Lloyd Kelly is the only other short-term injury that is forced to miss Lazio this weekend.
- In total, Juventus will be without six players due to injury.
- Three players who are available to play against Lazio are a yellow card away from having to serving a one-game suspension: Khephren Thuram, Timothy Weah and Nocolo Savona. (Cambiaso is also on this list, but he obviously won’t have to worry about it this week at minimum.)
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
With so many players still out injured, it’s hard to say where a certain American utility player will actually line up on the field this weekend.
It’s just that you know he will because he’s capable of filling so many roles when somebody isn’t available. Therefore, we’ll chat about him even though there’s a little uncertainty about where he will be in the starting lineup.
Photo by Daniele Badolato – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images
Over the past couple of hours, I’ve seen predicted starting lineups that had Weston McKennie starting as:
- A wingback on the right wing in a 3-4-2-1.
- A central midfielder playing to the right of Manuel Locatelli in a 3-5-2.
- An attacking midfielder playing behind Randal Kolo Muani in a 3-4-2-1.
Technically, the last two of those could be at least partially true considering McKennie could play an advanced role as somebody like Nico González slots in as a supporting striker alongside Kolo Muani. But the fact still remains that there are a lot of different places that people think McKennie could pop up Saturday night, and there’s understandably no real consensus.
That’s rather on brand for the season that McKennie has had since his position where he plays has sometimes simply depended on who else is available and not injured. He’s played in so many different positions under multiple managers that it’s impossible to keep track. Or if you do try and keep track, you might run out of fingers when counting them all up.
McKennie’s position against Lazio likely depends on just how much confidence Tudor has to give Alberto Costa has first-ever Juventus start in a game that means so much in the standings. Considering Juve have extremely limited options when it comes to natural wingbacks/fullbacks, Tudor might have to go with Costa because there’s nobody else if he wants a natural wide player as a wingback this weekend. If Tudor isn’t confident in Costa’s potential from the start, then we’re probably looking at both wingback positions being occupied by the Americans on the Juve roster.
It’s far from an ideal situation, but it’s one where you know McKennie is going to play.
You just don’t know where quite yet — which very much makes sense for how this season has gone and how it will continue to be because there are so many injuries on this team.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, May 10, 2025.
Where: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 6 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada).
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.
