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To steal a line from Juventus manager Max Allegri, "#fiu."
Three matchups were revealed out of the bouncing balls, and not one involved Juventus. Barcelona? Gone. Both Madrid teams? Gone. The team Juventus faced the last time they were in the quarterfinals, Bayern Munich? Gone. There was just one team left for Juventus — and that would be Monaco, which will be the Old Lady's opponent in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
I'd say that's something to ease a bit of the Paul Pogba injury news pain, don't you think?
The quarterfinal draw couldn't have gone any better for the three-time Serie A champions. I sat here preparing myself for Juventus vs. Bayern Munich or Juventus making the trip to Madrid to face Real or Alético (again), with Juve immediately becoming the underdog against one of the heavyweights or Europe.
Instead, Juventus got the best draw they could have possibly gotten, facing a Monaco side that is about as unexpected of a quarterfinalist as any single club still in this year's competition right now. Now all that's left is for Juventus, sans Pogba and all of his awesome super powers, to come as close as possible to replicating the kind of performance we saw in the second leg against Borussia Dortmund this past Wednesday night in Germany.
Easier said than done, sure, but it's a little easier to think they might be able to do such a thing against a club like Monaco compared to the absolutely relentless defending and high pressure of Diego Simeone and Atléti.
All four matchups, in case you are late to the party.
The official result of the #UCLdraw: Which quarter-final are you looking forward to most? pic.twitter.com/wl7CACbUOn
— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 20, 2015
Man oh man are the quarterfinals going to be fun (in theory, of course; final verdict to come in about a month). And that's not just because of who Juventus were drawn against.
SEGNATE QUESTE DATE SUL CALENDARIO: Juventus - Monaco 14 aprile Monaco - Juventus 22 aprile #UCLDraw
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) March 20, 2015
That's the first leg in Turin, the second in Monaco eight days later. So go ahead and plan your trips to France while you still can, people!
