Juventus will have to rest up over this Christmas break, as they have a tough start in 2022.
The Bianconeri have had a difficult first half-season, sitting on 34 points after the opening 19 games of the campaign, 12 points behind rivals and league leaders Inter. Their quality will be heavily tested in the first two months after the break, with multiple tough fixtures on the horizon.
Straight out of the gate Juventus will host Napoli on January 6, a match that has often proved explosive in recent years. Three days later, they travel down to the Italian capital to face Jose Mourinho’s Roma, a team who are hot on their heels in the table, sitting only two points behind them in 6th.
The Bianconeri will then only have there days to prepare for the Supercoppa Italiana against an in-form Inter, meaning that they’ll face three of the best teams in Italy in a six-day period.
The following match is against Udinese on January 15, a brief respite, before facing Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia Round of 16 three days later. After that match, Massimiliano Allegri’s side will have their longest break of 2021 so far, having five days to prepare for an away trip to Stefano Pioli’s Milan.
Things let up a little for Juventus in February; their first match of that month is against Hellas Verona on February 6. This could be a deceivingly difficult game considering that they lost 2-1 to the Gialloblu in Veneto back in October.
A week later the Piedmont side will travel to Bergamo to face Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta, before having seven days to prepare for the Turin derby, scheduled for February 20. They cannot afford a tiring match against their local rivals, as two days after the derby they’ll be travelling to Spain to face Villarreal in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 clash.
Juventus’ February closes with an away trip to Empoli, another match that could be harder than it seems, with the team losing 1-0 at home to the Tuscan side back in August.
Allegri will have to carefully manage his squad in order to maintain fitness, as his players will be faced with an incredible 11 matches in the opening two months of 2022.