Juventus faces Lecce in a crucial match that could determine their Champions League fate. With only three games left in the season, Juventus must secure all points to maintain their position above Roma and Como.
Key points
Juventus is one point ahead of Roma in the standings.
Lecce is currently in 17th place, four points above relegation.
Juventus must win their last three matches to secure Champions League qualification.
Lecce aims to avoid relegation by taking points from Juventus.
Manuel Locatelli stated that Juventus' success depends on their own performance.
Mentioned in this story
Luciano Spalletti
JuventusUS LecceRomaComo
TURIN, ITALY - JANUARY 03: Weston McKennie of Juventus controls the ball during the Serie A match between Juventus FC and US Lecce at Juventus Stadium on January 03, 2026 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images) | Juventus FC via Getty Images
TURIN, ITALY - JANUARY 03: Weston McKennie of Juventus controls the ball during the Serie A match between Juventus FC and US Lecce at Juventus Stadium on January 03, 2026 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images) | Juventus FC via Getty Images
With just three games to go in the 2025-26 season, Juventus have the chance to see the home stretch go one of two ways. They can either hold firm on their slim, one-point margin over fifth-place Roma (and Como in sixth place) and qualify for the Champions League. Or, they can fumble away what was a good advantage to have just a couple of weeks ago, seeing chances to wrap things up go by the wayside and drop down into a potential doomsday scenario when it comes to the core of the roster and the finances of the club.
One part of this fork in the road is the good option.
The other is ⊠well, basically the opposite of that.
So how do you prevent a reality where Juventus walk through the less-than-desirable Door No. 2? You listen to Rocky Balboaâs wife Adrian and close your final three games with nothing but three points.
One week after lining up against a team that had just been officially relegated to Serie B, Juventus now face a team that is trying not to join Hellas Verona in Italyâs second division next season. As things stand right now, Lecceâs standing in 17th place is actually looking a little better than Juveâs in fourth. Lecce are four points ahead of when it comes to the final relegation spot, with Hellas Verona and mathematically relegated during the opening hours of Matchday 35 last week. Come Saturday night at the Via Del Mare, any sort of taking points off Juventus will mean Lecceâs status in Serie A for next season is just that much looks that much better. But at the same time, it would mean the potential and dread Door No. 2 option for Luciano Spalletti of becoming that much more of a reality.
Considering Juventusâ final two fixtures of the season are against two teams, and Torino (at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino), who would absolutely love to see the Bianconeriâs Champions League hopes go up in smoke right in front of the finish line, going into those two matchups in even worse shape than things may appear now is potentially the final nail in the coffin. Or least thatâs how it would feel from the outside.
As weird as the past few days have been because when you drop points against a team thatâs already been relegated and see your advantage in fourth place cut to a single point itâs not like you can feel great about things, Juventus are still in the driverâs seat. They can control their own destiny. You win the final three games of the season and youâre in the Champions League again. It wonât matter what Roma does. It wonât matter what Como does, either. Three wins and youâre in â simple as that.
put it best : âWe know it all depends on us.â
Thatâs seven simple words from the man who wears the captainâs armband at Juventus. The words are simple, but as the Bianconeri showed last weekend, actually doing so against one of the worst teams in the league â thatâs already been relegated down to Serie B, too! â isnât as simple as it appears on paper. (It should have been but it wasnât. Because this team just shoots itself in the foot so many damn times.)
Spalletti was just as direct â or at least in his own special way since heâs a very philosophical when at the microphone â when discussing Juveâs current situation in regard to Champions League qualification.
âIn some ways, though, the path is now clearer, thereâs only one way forward, with no room for distraction,â he said . âYou donât risk getting there whilst harbouring doubts about how you should behave. You have to be resolute in your choices and intentions. Thatâs what makes the difference, we need to do something that breaks the monotony, the routine.â
So now after facing a team that had nothing left to play for other than pride (and maybe auditioning for their next team), you are facing a second straight provincial side that has *a whole lot on the line* when they take the field on Saturday night.
Something that is true: Lecce has more wins over the last couple of matchdays Juventus. Seriously, thatâs a thing. Have they been great over their last six games, let alone the last few months? Of course not, and that is a big reason why theyâre just a few points out of the relegation zone as compared to a much more comfortable position with three games to go. They are still fighting for their lives in Serie A, and a loss to Juventus plus Cremonese beating Pisa on Sunday could make for an incredibly stressful final two weeks of the season for Eusebio Di Francesco.
So, this is no pushover. Juve may have won the last four of six meetings against Lecce since their return to Serie A, but very few of them have been dominant or runaway kinds of victories. This could very well be another one of those cases where itâs 1-0 or 2-1 and youâre going to have to grind out every single minute in which you have the lead despite the fact youâre playing against one of the statistically worst teams in Serie A.
Then again, Juveâs already dropped points against Lecce once this season â ! â so it might not be out of the realm of possibilities that youâre seriously worrying about that happening again. You certainly wonât be alone there, my friend.
But like Spalletti and Locatelli have both said, Juventus have their fate in their hands. They get all three points and theyâre heading back to Turin just that much closer to qualifying for the Champions League. It might not be a situation thatâs wrapped up a couple of weeks early like we hoped, but the more you can prevent the disaster situation from happening then the better your chances of getting into the competition with the world-famous anthem end up being.
Nobody wants to see Door No. 2 become a reality. Not Spalletti, not Locatelli, not any of us.
Q&A
What is at stake for Juventus in the match against Lecce?
Juventus needs to win to maintain their Champions League qualification hopes, as they currently hold a slim one-point lead over Roma.
How does Lecce's position affect the match outcome?
Lecce is four points clear of the relegation zone and needs to secure points against Juventus to improve their chances of avoiding relegation.
What are Juventus' remaining fixtures after the Lecce match?
After facing Lecce, Juventus will play Fiorentina and Torino in their final two matches of the season.
What did Manuel Locatelli say about Juventus' situation?
Manuel Locatelli emphasized that Juventus' fate depends solely on their performance, stating, 'We know it all depends on us.'
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The good news? For the past three days, pretty much everybody who is currently available to Spalletti has trained with the group. No more wondering about if Kenan Yildiz has trained separately or with his teammates. None of that with Khephren Thuram or Dusan Vlahovic.
The only two players out injured against Lecce are Juan Cabal and Arek Milik, with both players having suffered season-ending injuries last month.
There are now three Juventus players who are one yellow card away from suspension: Gleison Bremer, Lloyd Kelly and Manuel Locatelli. With three games to go and Juventusâ slim advantage in fourth place, this feels like an important thing to keep in mind.
The biggest piece of squad news to come out of Spallettiâs pre-match press conference: Vlahovic could very well be in the starting lineup. âLetâs not place too much responsibility on him either, team cohesion comes from many things,â Spalletti said of Vlahovic, who hasnât started a game since Juveâs late-November win over Cagliari in which he had to come off after 30 minutes due to injury.
Despite his role in Hellas Veronaâs goal last weekend, Michele Di Gregorio is expected to keep his place in the starting lineup ahead of Mattia Perin.
Even though we havenât seen much of him over the last couple of months, Spalletti said that LoĂŻs Openda falling out of the rotation is one of his âunmentioned mistakesâ as Juventus manager. âIf I didnât play him, itâs because I thought the others were better and could give us more results in these games,â Spalletti added.
Only six of Juventusâ 17 away games this season have seen three goals or more be scored. Take that as you will ahead of a trip to a stadium in which Juve dropped points last season.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
So Spalletti said Vlahovic could very well be in the starting lineup against Lecce?
And you think we wonât take that chance to talk *again* about a Juventus attacking player for very obvious reasons?
Of course we will. Every single time Lucio opens that door, we will take that chance.
Yes, Vlahovic could be in the starting lineup and having Yildiz and Chico Conceição flanking him in attack against Lecce on Saturday night. In a way, maybe this is what Spalletti hoped for all along and wanted ever since the early weeks of his managerial tenure at Juventus up until Vlahovic got hurt and subsequently missed close to four months as a result.
But for Spalletti to say something like this during which a time that he doesnât always have press conferences and doesnât usually comment on the starting lineup chances of players, it has to mean something. Or maybe thatâs just me reading too much into it. Or maybe itâs just me hoping that the easy pick to fill out this section of the preview actually comes to fruition.
Understandably, itâs been a bit of a mixed bag for Vlahovic in his first couple of appearances off the bench since coming back from his minor muscle injury he picked up while warming up to potentially come on against Genoa. Thereâs been some good things, but thereâs also been some classic not-so-good things from Vlahovic that has you just shaking your head because youâve seen them so many times over the last few years.
The thing is, though, the alternatives arenât exactly inspiring. Is Vlahovic a better option than Jonathan David right now? Maybe. Thatâs basically what itâs down to for Spalletti and what heâs probably asking himself. Does this Juventus team have a better chance of scoring goals and winning on Saturday night (and then the next two weeks) if itâs Vlahovic or David starting up front? It doesnât seem so simple, but maybe thatâs just me.
At the very least, if Vlahovic does play from the start, it will be nice for Juventus to have somebody who is considered a fairly good free kicker taker. Because as he proved last weekend, he can do that well and it does actually bring something to the table as compared to the normal state of Juveâs threat from free kicks.
MATCH INFO
**When:**Saturday, May 9, 2026.
**Where:**Â Stadio Via Del Mare, Lecce, Italy.
**Official kickoff time:**Â 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 1:45 p.m. Central time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
**Television:**Â TLN (Canada); TNT Sports 2 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).
**Online/Streaming:**Â **Paramount+**, Amazon Prime USA, DAZN USA (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italy, Sky Go Italia, NOW TV (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found **here**, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say **on Bluesky**. If you havenât already, **join the community** on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.