Juventus had an incredible start to the new year with a fantastic run of results in January. New coach Luciano Spalletti has hit the ground running at the club as the team is scoring a lot of goals (14 goals in seven games in January) while maintaining a solid defense (only two goals conceded in those seven games).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There\u2019s a real sense of optimism and belief at the club that we haven\u2019t felt since the honeymoon period of the Thiago Motta era. While a Scudetto challenge is probably too ambitious and too late, there\u2019s finally a feeling that Juventus are a team to be taken seriously again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
As always, though, it\u2019s easy to get carried away. Like I said, we remember flashes of this optimism and positivity during the early days of the Motta era \u2014 and we saw how that ended. And despite all the good vibes, we\u2019re still just a point ahead of Roma for fourth place at the time of writing so there\u2019s still much to be done and many games to be played until I can definitively say that we\u2019re back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Juventus started 2026 with a strange 1-1 draw against Lecce. It was one of the most relentlessly dominant performances we\u2019ve had in a long time, as we created numerous chances and forced save after save from goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone. And yet, we conceded the first goal after a terrible error from Andrea Cambiaso. The defender passed it straight to Lecce player Lameck Banda, who danced his way past Gleison Bremer and struck a perfect shot into goal. It was Lecce\u2019s first true chance of the game, just on the stroke of half time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Bianconeri<\/em> maintained their dominance after the break and it paid off with a quick equalizer from Weston \u201cJust-Extend-His-Contract-Already\u201d McKennie after good work from Kenan Yildiz. Jonathan David then won a penalty after the referee harshly judged that defender Mohamed Kaba deliberately struck the ball with his hand in the box. David took one of the least confident penalties I\u2019ve seen in a while and, as the shot went through the middle of the goal, Falcone easily saved it with his feet. Juventus huffed and puffed and dominated the remainder of the game but despite Lecce creating nothing all game, the final score was 1-1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We returned to winning ways in the next game against Sassuolo away from home. Pierre Kalulu sent a hopeful cross into the box that defender Tarik Muharemovic headed into goal for an unfortunate (but brilliant!) own goal. In what is typically a difficult game, Spalletti\u2019s team controlled the game with ease as Sassuolo barely got out of their own half. David redeemed himself for his woeful penalty miss against Lecce with a man-of-the-match performance that helped put the game to bed. First, he played an excellent ball through to Fabio Miretti who broke past the Sassuolo defense and scored with a powerful shot into the far corner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Then, the Canadian scored the team\u2019s third goal after his pressing and incredible workrate forced Jay Idzes into a terrible backpass that David took advantage of. He kept his cool and rounded the goalkeeper to finish in an empty net, to the joy of almost the entire Juventus team who ran out to celebrate with him. A feel-good moment that ended a fantastic game: 3-0.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We carried this positivity forward into the next game, a thumping 5-0 victory over Cremonese. It started with a comical opening goal when Miretti fired a thunderous volley from a corner at goal and it hit\u2026 the back of Gleison Bremer as it bounced into goal. The Brazilian was awarded one of the easiest goals of his career. David continued his resurgence in form with his second goal in as many games after Thuram went on one of his trademark storming dribbles from midfield and played the ball to David just inside the box. The Canadian\u2019s first touch created the perfect scoring opportunity and his second touch was a confident side-footed shot into the far corner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Then came a bizarre moment of controversy. When Manuel Locatelli made a sliding tackle in the box on Dennis Johnsen, he seemed to catch the Cremonese player on his ankle in the follow-through. The referee called for a penalty kick but, after VAR review, surprisingly judged that Locatelli (barely) won the ball first so he canceled the penalty kick and ordered play to carry on. To me, it was a generous interpretation of the term \u201cwon the ball first\u201d given that 9\/10 such tackles are judged to be a foul even if the player wins the ball first because the follow-through is too rough. But hey, I\u2019m just some guy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Somewhat cruelly, Cremonese then conceded a penalty for an unfortunate handball in the box. Yildiz saw his penalty tipped onto the post by keeper Emil Audero but Yildiz scored the rebound.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Miretti was one of the stars of the match as he provided another assist for the fourth goal. His perfect through ball reached McKennie who rounded goalkeeper Audero and poked the ball towards goal. Defender Filippo Terracciano tried to slide in to stop it from crossing the line but ended up sliding it into goal for an own goal. McKennie did get his goal 20 minutes later when he headed in a perfect cross from Kalulu: 5-0!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The party stopped in the next game away versus Cagliari. It was just \u201cone of those days.\u201d Cagliari had 22% ball possession and only 2 shots all game, but one of those was a cracking volleyed goal from a set piece from Luca Mazzitelli. Juventus labored in vain with 22 shots (seven on target) but were just painfully wasteful and, truth be told, didn\u2019t create enough clear-cut chances to deserve a goal. We thought we had a good opportunity to score when Miretti won a penalty in the first half, but the referee judged that the midfielder had, in fact, committed the foul on the Cagliari player rather than vice-versa. A frustrating 1-0 loss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We took a page from Cagliari\u2019s book in the 2-0 Champions League victory over Benfica in the next game. We had less possession, fewer shots, and fewer passes than the Portuguese team but still won the game. The first half was a bit of a non-event but Thuram scored with a great driven shot and McKennie, scoring for the third consecutive Champions League game doubled our lead after a great one-two with David. Benfica almost got their way back in the game when Bremer committed an unlucky foul in the box to give away a penalty, but Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis slid while kicking the ball and completely skied his shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Then came probably the most satisfying victory of the month: a thumping 3-0 win at home against Napoli. The Bianconeri<\/em> dominated the game from start to finish against an injury-ravaged Napoli. David scored again<\/strong> after collecting Locatelli\u2019s improvised backheel assist, showing great strength to hold off Leonardo Spinazzola, and finishing past goalkeeper Alex Meret. Despite our dominance, there was a creeping feeling that with just a one-goal lead and our lack of ability to kill off games, Napoli would find a way to score a goal against the run of play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Instead, Juan Jesus did us a favor and calmed all our fears. He played a disastrous backpass straight to Miretti, who played it to Yildiz. The Turkish superstar held off the defender and scored a tidy goal to double our lead. Substitute Filip Kostic, playing on the right of all places, joined the party when he collected a loose ball on the edge of the box and scored with a thunderous left-footed shot in the 86th minute. A complete performance and a dominant victory against the defending champions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The final game of the month wasn\u2019t quite as exciting as it was effective: a goalless draw in the final League Phase match of this season\u2019s Champions League campaign. There really was barely any action in this game as Spalletti rotated his team knowing that a spot in the top eight, i.e. direct qualification for the Round of 16, was out of his hands and would, frankly, require a miracle. His decision was vindicated as the results didn\u2019t fall our way, meaning that there was little point in exerting too much energy to go for a victory. We play Galatasaray in the playoff round.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Juventus Women started the year by doing what it does best: winning silverware. This time, they won the Supercoppa by beating AS Roma 2-1 in Pescara. Manuela Giugliano scored Roma\u2019s only goal from a low cross from Evelyne Viens but Amalie Vangsgaard equalized for Juventus by converting from a loose ball in the box. The winner came from a moment of magic from who else but Cristiana Girelli. The striker somehow backheeled a shot from Martina Lenzini to score the game\u2019s final goal and secure another trophy for the team!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After a 2-1 comeback victory against Roma, we fell to a 2-1 comeback loss against Inter in the league. Cecilia Salvai gave us the lead in the fourth minute with a header from a corner but Karolina Vilhjalmsdottir equalized for Inter just ten minutes later. Marija Milinkovic scored the winner after converting from another Tessa Wullaert corner kick in the 35th minute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It seems that 2-1 was the most common scoreline of the month. The Bianconere<\/em> beat Napoli by that scoreline in the first leg of the Coppa Italia quarter finals on January 22. Vangsgaard put us in the lead when she took advantage of an error in the Napoli defense to score. Cecilie Floe equalized for Napoli immediately after the break but Girelli scored a late penalty to give us a tough 2-1 victory!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Next up, we secured an easy 3-0 victory against Parma in the league. Bonansea scored a header from a corner early in the game and it seemed like that was going to be the only goal in the game until Vangsgaard and Stolen Godo scored in the last 10 minutes of the game (the latter a fantastic free kick) to make it a comfortable victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another day, another 2-1 victory. Juventus progressed to the semi finals of the Coppa Italia thanks to second-half goals from Girelli and Thomas; Kinga Kozak scored a late consolation goal for Napoli.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The winter transfer window eased to a soft, non-slammed close on Feb. 2 (for Italy, at least). Here\u2019s a roundup of all the transfers (that I could find) that Juventus completed and notable contract negotiations:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"TURIN,](\"https:\/\/platform.blackwhitereadallover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-2254972153.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100\")
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