Inter Milan’s Champions League exit is bad news for Juventus

The last thing Juventus needed right now was for Inter Milan to be eliminated from the Champions League.

Yes, it’s fun for us Juve fans to get to enjoy the misfortune of Inter Milan, but in this case, their misfortune could be a curse for Juve as well. Inter’s exit should make Juve’s pursuit of a 9th consecutive Scudetto more difficult than it had already become this season.

One of the biggest reasons why Juve has been able to maintain their dominance over the league for so long has been because they have had much more depth than anybody else in the league. However, that advantage has already started to disappear this season as their injuries have piled up, leaving them with very limited options in their starting lineup. Also, unlike them, their competition won’t have to worry about depth.

With Inter being eliminated from the Champions League, that now leaves both them and Lazio competing in the Europa League. I can just about guarantee that if either of them has a shot at the Scudetto, they’ll be playing their bench in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

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

That will mean that they can keep their starting lineups much fresher than Juve and won’t have to worry as much about potentially wasting opportunities to beat the lesser competition because they had to rest starters.

We don’t really know yet if Lazio can keep themselves in the race for the Scudetto all season, but Inter is the frontrunner right now. Taking one competition off of their plate will just make it even tougher for Juve to catch them.

While Juve may end up in situations where they have to rest their players before or after a Champions League match, Inter will be able to start their first-choice squad as often as possible. This will become an even bigger issue if Juve makes it to the CL quarterfinals. They would end up playing both legs of their quarterfinal matchup, Torino, Milan, and Atalanta all in the space of 2 weeks.

If they continue to advance, they would have to play Lazio right before the first leg of their quarterfinal matchup. Every single one of these could be key matches for Juve in a tight Scudetto race where they might not be at their best, while Inter will now be at their best for every Serie A match.

Juventus has already been struggling to keep up with Inter this season, suffering through a long string of poor performances. They need every advantage they can get if they are going to continue their Scudetto reign in spite of their obvious flaws. Tuesday’s result took away one of those advantages and now makes it harder to see where Inter is going to drop points to open the door for Juve.

This obviously doesn’t mean Juve won’t be able to catch Inter this year or that Juve fans shouldn’t take some joy in watching one of their rivals fail, but it will make the Scudetto race tougher for Juve down the stretch.