The Old Lady Speaks Podcast, Episode 123: Bingeing the Europa League anthem

What felt inevitable after the first couple of Champions League group stages games became official last week.

There’s no more Champions League football for Juventus this season. And knowing how things are shaping up in Serie A this season, there’s no guarantee that there’s going to be Champions League football next season, too. That means, for now, Juve and those that support the Old Lady might as well get familiar with the Europa League and the Thursday-Sunday grind that is about to greet Max Allegri’s squad come the next year when European competition resumes.

Exciting stuff, right?

Well, not exactly. But this is Juventus’ 2022-23 season to date in a nutshell — missing out on one of the biggest goals this club has simply because they didn’t play very well at all over the course of the Champions League group stage. Now they’re reaping what they sow. And that, my friends, is a likely trip to the Europa League.

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

• Takeaways from the week that was — including how the word “nadir” continues to come back in the fold even when you’ve though Juve has hit rock bottom, and how this season has basically forced us to run out of takeaways because it’s the same problems over and over again. (But we power on regardless!)
• No more Champions League after Juventus faces Paris Saint-Germain this week.
• That’s because Juventus’ latest Champions League loss, last Tuesday night against Benfica, means that they are officially out of the running for the knockout stages.
• You won’t believe this, but Max Allegri didn’t get a lot of things right against Benfica.
• So, it’s most likely the Europa League now unless something goes seriously wrong against PSG on Wednesday night. (Which, based on how Juve’s season has gone, you never know!)
• Juventus’ game over the weekend was absolutely terrible outside of Nicolo Fagioli’s stunning goal against Lecce.
• The kids, they’re doing pretty OK so far, aren’t they?
• Twitter questions — including why J Medical is so busy all the time, could the recent exploits from Juve’s youngsters light a fire under the veterans’ backsides, and what realistic expectations are for the rest of the season are.

You can listen to Episode 123 of The Old Lady Speaks Podcast here:

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