Juventus Await Nostalgia-Laden Champions League Semi-Final with Real Madrid

Having crashed out of the UEFA Champions League during the group stage last season, Juventus headed into 2014-15 looking for a much-improved showing in Europe. Three consecutive Serie A titles had seen the Bianconeri fully establish their domestic dominance, and there was certainly a feeling that it was time to carry that over into continental action.

Indeed, in his first press conference after being unveiled as Antonio Conte’s successor, Max Allegri told reporters that “Juventus must be among the top eight teams in Europe, it’s our duty,” per the club’s official website.

Implementing some subtle tactical changes, Allegri reached the knockout stages of the elite competition with relative ease, and in doing so, took Italian football’s grand Old Lady on a trip down memory lane. First came a last-16 meeting with Borussia Dortmund, a tie laced with nostalgia after the two sides repeatedly clashed throughout the 1990s.

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

As discussed in this previous column, they went head-to-head in the 1993 UEFA Cup Final, the semi-final of the same competition two years later and then competed in the 1997 Champions League finale after also meeting in the group stage the previous season.

Eliminating Jurgen Klopp’s men thanks to a 5-2 aggregate scoreline this time around saw them deliver on Allegri’s promise, and the Turin-based club was rewarded with a quarter-final clash against AS Monaco. The Ligue 1 side is another team they share recent history with, having previously faced them in the last four of the same competition back in 1998, progressing 6-4 thanks to a stunning Alessandro Del Piero hat trick.

The two would be more evenly matched in 2015, however, with Arturo Vidal’s first-leg penalty eventually proving enough to see the Bianconeri progress once again. That result ensured they reached the semi-finals for the first time in 12 years, and the draw would once again pit Juventus against an all-too-familiar foe.

Just as they were back in 2003, fate has seen Real Madrid once again standing in the way of Juventus and a place in the final, although the gulf between the two is almost certainly greater than it was back then. Due to the effects of the Calciopoli scandal and their subsequent relegation, the Bianconeri have been forced to work extremely hard off the field to compete with the European elite, and that seems to be finally paying off.

Yet even as they reclaimed a place in the top ten of this year’s Deloitte Money League (h/t Owen Gibson of The Guardian), the distance to first place is staggering. The table shows Juve sit 10th with an annual revenue of £233.6 million, with their next Champions League opponents on top of the pile with a staggering £459.5 million.

That clearly hands Real Madrid a serious competitive edge, Carlo Ancelotti able to field the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, who all rank among the game’s most expensive signings of all time.

Here the memories of yesteryear are positive for the Bianconeri, however, as their last meeting saw them go head-to-head with the Galactico-era side that boasted names such as Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and the Brazilian Ronaldo. Juventus prevailed back then, emerging 4-3 winners after the second leg as an inspired Pavel Nedved lifted them to victory.

“We want to do something great and historic for Italian football and we will try our best,” the Czech midfielder—now a Bianconeri director—told Sport Mediaset after last Friday’s draw (h/t Football Italia), going on to recall that 2003 triumph in which he played a starring role.

“Like today, we weren’t favourites then, but we are competitive,” Nedved continued. “We know they have some superstars, but we mustn’t fear them. The road to the final is still long. Real are amongst the strongest teams in the world, but we will try our best.”

They will almost certainly do just that in a tie that pits two former Milan bosses—Allegri and Ancelotti—against one another for a place in the final. This nostalgia-laden semi-final clash seems like another fitting step in what has already been a historic campaign for everyone connected to Juventus.