One of the biggest themes of this 2024-25 season for Juventus has involved the inability to keep a lead. By now, the amount of points Juventus have lost from a winning position has become common knowledge, with that 17-point total pretty much one of the first things those who announce Juve games quote whenever the opportunity presents itself.
And it certainly has happened a lot.
So now, after months of instances in which Juve haven’t been able to hold a lead, here comes a new twist on that situation: keeping an aggregate lead.
Juventus head to the Netherlands with one thing and one thing only in mind: don’t lose. It’s a mindset that could get you in plenty of trouble if you don’t approach it right, and something that we’ve seen Juve struggle with from time to time during recent European adventures. But, this team is very much one that has not been in this kind of situation before as they are currently constructed — which means we’re going to see if the same struggles they’ve had after going ahead in a game can be applied to a two-legged European tie for the first time this season.
Juve have a 2-1 advantage over the reigning Dutch champions thanks to their win last Tuesday night in Turin, with Samuel Mbangula’s late game-winner allowing Thiago Motta’s squad to get their first in Europe since mid-December. It’s thanks to that slim lead on aggregate rather than yet another draw to add to the lengthy list of them domestically and in the Champions League that means Juve don’t necessarily need to win against PSV on Wednesday.
Instead, anything but a loss will put Juve through to the UCL Round of 16 where they would meet either Arsenal or Inter — which, considering what just happened this past weekend, probably feels like a little bit more likely.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a 3-3 draw, a 1-0 win over something that has Juve scoring more or just as many goals as PSV. Juventus just can’t afford to lose or else they will see their lead after the first leg go up in smoke and become the third in as many Serie A clubs to be ousted in the play-off round.
If it’s the Juve that we saw in the second half against Inter on Sunday night, then there’s a pretty good chance of Thiago Motta’s squad advancing. But if it’s a version of Juventus like we saw in the first half against that same Inter side, then PSV are going to very much be in this thing and potentially seeing that 2-1 aggregate deficit flipped in their favor.
PSV’s return to domestic competition this past weekend looked a lot like their recent results — not winning. The reigning Dutch champions enter Wednesday night’s game against Juventus with just one win in their last five, with a stoppage-time equalizer needed to record a 2-2 draw against FC Utrecht on Saturday night.
In the league phase, PSV won three of their four home fixtures, including a 3-2 victory on Matchday 8 over current Premier League leaders Liverpool — which was heavily rotated with the top spot in the 32-team table already locked up.
To combat PSV’s homefield advantage at the Philips Stadion, Motta will be hoping for more of the same results-wise from his team that he saw in the league phase. Juventus didn’t lose any of their four games away from home, but the catch with that statement is that three of those results were draws against Lille, Aston Villa and Club Brugge. (Yes, the same Club Brugge that just bounced Atalanta from the play-off round. So what’s it like to lose to Club Brugge? Who knows, couldn’t tell you as a Juventus fan.)
So what will give here? Can Juventus avoid what happened to AC Milan and Atalanta 24 hours earlier and actually advance to the Champions League Round of 16?
Considering Juventus have their first winning streak of more than just a couple of games this season, you have to think that the confidence level of the squad is in a different place compared to when the draws were happening and looked like they were never going to end. And heading to the Netherlands with a lead — albeit a slim one-goal variety — is certainly much different situation as compared as an alternative if Mbangula or Weston Mckennie not scored seven days ago.
So here’s goes nothin’, folks. Here is one of the biggest tests for Juventus — or, as Motta said during his pre-match press conference, “the biggest game of the season so far” — to see if they can actually hold a lead. It’s on aggregate, sure, but the same worries based on what we’ve seen for much of the 2024-25 season still apply.
TEAM NEWS
- The worry of Andrea Cambiaso being back on the injury list after training away from the group on Monday was actually nothing to stress about. Cambiaso has been called and made the trip to the Netherlands, with his individual training program simply by design and not because of his ankle injury situation getting worse following his appearance in Sunday’s win over Inter, according to Motta at his pre-match press conference.
- Douglas Luiz, who like Cambiaso trained with the group before the team leaving for the Netherlands, did not pass a late fitness test and will miss his second straight game due to muscle fatigue. Motta says he hopes to have the Brazilian midfielder back “as soon as possible.”
- The other injury absences aren’t any sort of surprise, with Pierre Kalulu and the three long-term players — Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik — also staying behind in Turin.
- Motta is not expected to go too far away from the starting lineup he used in Sunday’s win over Inter, with Manuel Locatelli the most likely change to play from the opening whistle.
- With Cambiaso still unlikely to have a big amount of minutes in his legs, winter signing Lloyd Kelly is also being tipped to come into the starting lineup after not playing over the weekend. Kelly had reportedly been dealing with an illness between the first leg against PSV and the Derby d’Italia.
- Just in case you were wondering, Motta declared what the intention of Wednesday night’s fixture is: “The objective is the Round of 16.” So we’ve cleared all of that up just to be sure.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
PSV will take the field Wednesday night needing to flip the aggregate scoreline in their favor. That means they will undoubtedly be pushing to score early (and probably often) so that they can, at the very least, pull even with Juventus and throw them off their game plan.
That means a lot of defending will be needed. Not just from the backline, either.
Photo by Image Photo Agency/Getty Images
As mentioned above, Manuel Locatelli is expected to return to Juventus’ starting lineup after getting a bit of a rest over the weekend against Inter. And if the predicted lineups are true, then the man who is likely going to be playing alongside Locatelli is Teun Koopmeiners rather than somebody who has played a lot more minutes in the double pivot under Motta in Khephren Thuram.
But no matter who it ends up being, Locatelli’s role in helping Juventus stay in front on the aggregate scoreline will be massive considering the defensive responsibilities he usually has to begin with.
We know Locatelli drops deep a lot of the time. That is no secret. It’s pretty much expected at this point with how Motta has situated this squad when Locatelli is on the field.
We also know that with the Federico Gatti-Renato Veiga partnership getting better as they get more time together, the performance of the defense has been rather strong when they’re not being their own worst enemy like they’ve shown for much of the last few months.
No matter what, though, Locatelli’s importance to Juventus defensively is going to go a long way in trying to keep PSV Eindhoven from flipping the aggregate scoreline in their favor. It doesn’t matter if it’s Koopmeiners or Thuram alongside him in the double pivot — Juve need a strong performance from Locatelli in all phases, but especially defensively.
MATCH INFO
When: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.
Where: Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 8 p.m. in the United Kingdom,3 p.m. Eastern time, 12 p.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: TNT Sports 3 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); DAZN Canada (Canada); discovery+ (United Kingdom); Amazon Prime Video (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.
