For the past two days, we’ve been sitting around waiting to see if Juventus would enter the first half of the final 180 minutes of the 2024-25 season still having the smallest of advantages in fourth place. Rather than sitting back and waiting to see what would happen after a win against Lazio, Juve had to wait with bated breath for the proceedings in Bergamo after their draw at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday night.
After a little over 52 hours of waiting, we finally got our answer.
Juventus can still somehow stake claim to fourth place after they got the help from Atalanta that was needed to stay in the final place for Champions League qualification. Ibrahim Sulemana’s first goal in an Atalanta jersey since arriving from Cagliari last summer not only secured his team the 2-1 win over Roma on Monday night to secure their own UCL spot next season, but also one that prevented Claudio Ranieri’s side from leapfrogging both Juve and Lazio in the standings with two games to go in the season. Rather than a three-team logjam tied on points like we had entering Matchday 36, there will only be one other team on the same point total as Juventus as we head toward a Matchday 37 in which everybody could very well be playing at the same time. (Serie A has yet to finalize the schedule, but this was a possibility going into the weekend.)
A severely shorthanded Juventus will look to prevent a third straight draw from happening this weekend when they place their final home game of the season when Udinese comes to Turin. Juve will conclude the season against relegation-threatened Venezia, who picked up a huge win earlier in the day on Monday when they beat Fiorentina to move out of the drop zone.
Lazio face Inter Milan — who trail league-leading Napoli by a point with two games to go — and then host 19th-place Lecce to wrap up the season.
Roma suffered their first loss in Serie A since mid-December on Monday night, ending a run of 19 straight games unbeaten under Ranieri that has seen them shoot up the table and become a serious player for a Champions League spot. Roma host Milan — who face Bologna in the Coppa Italia final on Wednesday night — and then close the season in Turin when they face Torino at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.
