It is less glamorous than the Champions League, but it is also the shortest road back to playing the queen of European competitions in 2027-28. Fewer matches than the league, though not fewer difficulties. Juventus debuted with a 5-0 against NEC, and tonight in Vigo they will try to add another brick to the structure. Winning the Europa League is like going to the Adriatic Riviera because you couldn’t get a place in Sardinia: by the end of the summer you have had so much fun that the different colour of the water barely registers any more, and in fact you find yourself preferring it. The Europa League doesn’t make you rich, but it can make you happier than its famous sister. That is true for everyone; a little more so for Juventus and for Luciano Spalletti.
Two Parallel Stories of Absence
The bianconeri have not triumphed outside Italy for thirty years. Spalletti, the man from Certaldo, has removed many satisfactions from his career — the Scudetto with Napoli above all others — but in the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, his name is still missing. Next to the masters Arrigo Sacchi, Marcello Lippi, Giovanni Trapattoni, and Fabio Capello, there are many Italians who have earned their European chapter in recent seasons: Maurizio Sarri won the Europa League with Chelsea. Roberto Mancini lifted the European Championship with Italy. Gian Piero Gasperini conquered the Europa League with Atalanta. Enzo Maresca took the Conference League with Chelsea. Setting aside Mancini’s international success, Spalletti has won more trophies than each of those colleagues across his career — from Roma through Zenit to Napoli. He has never, however, experienced a European celebration with confetti falling on him.
Carnevali’s Stated Ambition — “Juve Wants to Win That Trophy”
The CEO has been direct in a way that the club has not always been about competitions below Champions League level. His framing of the Europa League: “The Europa League is difficult because playing on Thursdays complicates things a little, but Juventus want to win that trophy.” And on the evolution of Spalletti’s own attitude towards the competition: “At the start of the season Luciano kept saying he missed the Champions League and I understood him. Now he no longer says that.”
The shift in framing — from consolation to genuine objective — is itself significant institutional news. Carnevali is not managing expectations downwards. He is setting them precisely where they need to be for a squad that begins its October gauntlet in Galicia tonight.
The Historical Weight — 1996, Supercoppa 1997, Coppa UEFA 1993
The specific dates and anniversaries add texture to the drought. May 2026 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the 1996 Champions League, lifted on penalties in Rome against Ajax. The 5 February 2027 will be the thirtieth anniversary of the UEFA Super Cup that followed. The last UEFA Cup dates to 1992-93 and the era of Roberto Baggio. In the intervening decades: five Champions League finals lost, an elimination in the 2023 Europa League semi-final against Sevilla that Gazzetta describes as “the most recent burn,” and a sixth-place finish last season that began the current chapter. “Too much, too long for a club like Juventus,” is Gazzetta’s summary.
Tonight’s Changes — Gatti, Kelly, Cambiaso, Alajbegović, Woltemade
Spalletti spent yesterday analysing the Cagliari draw footage with the squad before switching focus to Celta Vigo. The Europa League brings rotation: Gatti and Kelly start either side of Bremer, Cambiaso on the flank, Alajbegović on the trequarti, Woltemade leading the attack. Çelik — who has played every minute of the season so far — has a back problem and did not train on Tuesday; the manager will decide today whether to rest him at home or bring him to the bench in Vigo. The European nights create their own rhythm. Spalletti is hoping that rhythm carries forward into the weekend and beyond. The blank on his European record is thirty years old for the club and lifelong for the manager. Vigo is the next opportunity to begin erasing it.
