Four Serie A teams who will qualify for the Champions League
By John Vaccaro
1. Juventus
The 7 time reigning champs certainly didn’t show any sign of slowing down this summer. Juventus followed their narrow Scudetto win over Napoli by bringing in Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Cancelo, Emre Can, and Mattia Perin and bringing back Leonardo Bonucci. Juventus was the most talented team in Serie A and that didn’t change this summer.
More from Serie A
- Update on Leonardo Bonucci’s legal action against Juventus
- Romelu Lukaku and the betrayal of Inter Milan
- Report: Piotr Zieliński set to sign a new deal with SSC Napoli
- The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?
- Are Napoli finally Scudetto-bound? It sure looks like it
Juventus had the best defense in Serie A last year in spite of multiple injuries to their center backs. Bringing back one of the best CBs in the world in Leonardo Bonucci will only serve to make that defense even more impenetrable. Joao Cancelo will be an obvious improvement over the aging Stephan Lichtsteiner.
He will bring another threat when attacking from the back and has the pace to keep up on the outside against Europe’s faster wingers. While Gianluigi Buffon will be incredibly difficult to replace, Perin should be able to do a fine job taking over the role. Juve only allowed 24 goals last season and I wouldn’t be shocked if they managed to only allow 20 in 38 games next season.
Juve unfortunately didn’t get much stronger in the midfield and are only carrying 5 midfielders at this point. Emre Can was a nice addition, but Juve’s 2-man midfield will be the weakness that other top teams can exploit. Teams that will be strong in the midfield like Roma and Inter will give Juve some problems this season, but they’ll be hoping that one key addition will make the difference.
Juve added the second best player in the world this summer. Putting Ronaldo up front with Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa playing behind him with Mandzukic or Bernardeschi will make Juve’s offense incredibly potent. Ronaldo should be one of the top scorers in the league and Dybala could find himself high on that list as well. While the midfield has stayed about the same, Juve will be hoping the defense and attack can carry the team to another Scudetto.
At the end of the day, the gap continues to close between Juve and the rest of the league, but Juve’s depth should carry them through the season. While other teams will struggle to compete in 3 competitions, Juve will be able to keep their team rotated while still cleaning up in Serie A.
It will be an incredibly close race this season, but Juve should edge out their 8th consecutive Scudetto by a few points over Inter.