“Disgrace”, “collapse” and simply “incomprehensible”: Juventus Turin’s renewed exit in the Champions League round of 16 caused a stir in Italy.
After the 0:3 (0:0) of the Italian football record champions against the Europa League winners FC Villarreal, there is now no Italian club in the race for the title in the premier class.
“Juve collapses, Italy says goodbye to the Champions League,” commented the “Gazzetta dello Sport”. The club “says goodbye to Europe with an epochal disgrace that will be remembered for a long time,” the Italian daily continued. The team pays “a high price for the many wasted opportunities”.
For the “Corriere dello Sport” the “collapse in the last phase of the second half” is simply “incomprehensible. The Juve players leave the field under a hail of whistles and boos”.
Juve shares collapse
After Juve had to bury their premier class dreams for the third time in a row after the round of 16, the Italian stock market also reacted sensitively. The club’s share price fell by six percent on Thursday to 0.32 euros. The share had already reached a record low of EUR 0.28 on March 7th.
With Juventus, the last Italian representative said goodbye to the premier class. According to “Corriere dello Sport”, the Italian clubs’ Champions League adventure “could not have ended worse, especially for striker Dusan Vlahovic, in whom Juve invested 100 million euros in January”. Whether “with or without Ronaldo, the Champions League remains enchanted for Juve,” said Tuttosport.
Wednesday’s defeat is particularly painful for Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri. The 54-year-old took over the team at the beginning of the season and inherited the unsuccessful Andrea Pirlo.
In Serie A, Torino is fourth with 56 points behind leaders AC Milan, SSC Napoli and Inter Milan.