Juventus Women, climbing the European ranking: from No. 33 to 9 in one year

The success against Roma has reopened the Scudetto race in women’s Serie A, but it is the next match against Zurich that hides a historic and unexpected milestone: Juventus Women can conquer the ninth place in the Uefa ranking, therefore getting one step away from what not even a year and a half ago was indicated as the most ambitious goal to be achieved within 3-5 years, to enter the top eight in Europe. Instead, Braghin’s bet on Montemurro paid off sooner. And it can go further.

EUROPEAN DREAM

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It was the director of Juventus Women who spoke of the position in the UEFA ranking, during the presentation of Joe Montemurro as the group’s new coach. The Juventus formation came from the unbeaten record in the Italian championship but was stationed in place number 33: in short, that change of guard on the bench was a risk, even if it aimed to raise the bar in Europe. Said and done: the Australian coach (of Italian origin) has brought new ideas, in fact he has distorted the way of seeing football of his players without asking who knows what upheavals of the squad. So much to be able to normalize in a couple of seasons the current run of Juventus to the quarter-finals of the Champions League in a prohibitive group, with Arsenal and Lyon.

MANAGEMENT

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The Montemurro management actually recorded only three defeats (against Chelsea, Lyon and Arsenal) in twenty games played. And in this end, 2022 could reach its maximum expression: that is, playing a direct clash with the reigning champions Lyon to advance in the Women’s Champions League, having nothing to lose compared to the direct rivals, already stopped on a draw last October at the Stadium. Yet there were problems: the busy calendar and the absence of a regular pre-season due to the summer European Championships made everything more difficult, to the point of recording some setbacks in the championship. Even if the latest success at Roma has made things clear: Juve is still there, woe to underestimate them.

GROUP

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Juve have the best attack in the league, the second defence. More generally, it is experiencing a slow but continuous generational change with an evident passing of the baton between the old guard (less impacting on performance but still fundamental in transmitting the club’s DNA inside the locker room) and the new recruits who are now punctually protagonists on the field. The squad available to Montemurro isn’t perfect, something will be done on the transfer market in January above all to increase the number of solutions from the bench: but players like Lenzini and Grosso are now so central to the project that they have to be considered essential, like Gama or Cernoia until very recently; and valuable pieces such as Caruso and Boattin give ample scope for perspective.

RANKING UEFA

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A year and a half ago within the club there was the ambition to grow soon also at European level, but not the real perception. Also because until the previous season the level of the team still seemed too far from that of the first ones. Now Juve is not only in full swing to still defend the tricolor (after having won five in a row) but is ready to take the last definitive step among the strongest clubs in Europe in terms of women’s football: with the success against In Zurich, on Thursday at the Stadium, ninth place in the ranking would in fact be certain, before the ambitious challenge against Lyon. Who leads the special classification with the best coefficient ahead of Barcelona, ​​PSG, Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid.