The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 121: Juve’s UCL campaign is on life support

Knowing that they faced a must-win kind of situation midweek against Maccabi Haifa if they wanted to keep any sort of Champions League advancement hopes alive, Max Allegri’s men did, well, basically the opposite of that.

If Juve had any remaining hopes of making it to the Champions League knockout rounds, those might well be completely gone now based on the 2-0 loss to Maccabi Haifa on Tuesday night. The situation is dire to say the least, but in a season in which Juve have completely whiffed on pretty much everything that has come their way it’s probably not a surprise to many that we are sitting in this situation right now.

But, that’s what happens when you lose three out of your first four group stage games.

So, what now? Hope for a minor miracle? Start breaking down tiebreaker chances? Put all of the eggs into the Europa League basket knowing what’s in store in a few short weeks?

It’s not great no matter you slice it. Neither is this season — not by a long shot — so you can probably guess what the discussion centered around during this week’s podcast.

On this week’s episode of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, we discuss:

• Chuks is back from his honeymoon! He wouldn’t show us his fancy wedding ring, though. Probably because it’s a massive rock and cost thousands of dollars. Humble guy, he is.
• Takeaways from the week that was — including
• We work our way from backwards to forwards, starting the bulk of the show with a chat about Juventus’ latest Champions League disappointment against Maccabi Haifa midweek.
• We go through some of the tiebreakers that Juventus might need to simply finish third ahead of Maccabi and get into the Europa League.
• Seriously, tiebreakers for third place in the Champions League group. This is where things have gone.
• We switch over to the weekend’s action when Juventus actually got a win in an away fixture. It ironically came against a team that plays in the same city — which is another sign of how things are going so far this season.
• Not kidding, folks: Juve’s Derby della Mole win was the first away win of the season and it came within the city of Turin.
• Twitter questions — including Juventus’ potential Europa League hopes and how far might they go in the “other” European tournament going on, and what the heck is up with Fabio Miretti suddenly not getting any playing time as more than one Juve midfielder continues to struggle with his form.

You can listen to Episode 121 of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast here:

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