Benfica 4-3 Juventus: Roger Schmist’s Side Really Are The Robin Hood Of European Football - The Warm-Up

Juventus knocked out of the Champions League in 5 successive seasons by Ajax, Lyon, Porto, Villarreal & Benfica. Five clubs not deemed "glamorous" enough for the European Super League by one of its key cheerleaders - Juve chairman Andrea Agnelli. Sometimes football can be funny.

— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) October 25, 2022

"On a thrilling and bizarre evening in Lisbon, Benfica emerged victorious as Juventus fell flat on their faces, and straight out of the Champions League. A late flurry from the kids only make the questions about Max Allegri's future more pressing. Meanwhile, Graham Potter is living his best life at Chelsea, and Shakhtar brought the very good and the very, very bad to Glasgow.

Wednesday's Big Stories

Natural Justice

Did you hear? Juventus were back. Juventus were going to be ok. Juventus had sorted themselves out and won a football match. Two football matches! One right after the other, Torino and then Empoli. The Old Lady was back in her favourite rocking chair. Watch out world! Allegri takes blame as 'sorry' Juventus suffer shock nine-year first in Champions LeagueAllegri takes blame as 'sorry' Juventus suffer shock nine-year first in Champions League.

It took Benfica 45 minutes to completely destroy such optimism, and 90 to knock them out of the Champions League. Don't be fooled by the relatively close final scoreline, or Juventus' late flurry of pressure and goals. That came only once the game had disintegrated into a test of nerve that both sides ultimately failed. Before that, when it was a football match, Juventus got filleted.

Indeed, they were so bad that you can point the blame almost anywhere, and you'll probably have at least half a point. Maybe you want to blame the rotten luck that has sidelined almost all Juventus' summer signings, or that big Chiesa-shaped hole in the whole endeavour. Or the precipitous, alarming decline of Leonardo Bonucci and Juan Cuadrado, both hooked on the hour. João Mário overwhelmed the left side of Juventus' defence, while Rafa Silva made mincemeat of the wonky back three. But ultimately, as with any team that ends up looking less than the sum of its parts, all roads lead back to the coach.

Juventus, under Andrea Agnelli, do not sack managers in the middle of a season. Luigi Delneri got his full term, and so did Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo. Perhaps this is a question of principles; perhaps, too, an awareness that these things do take time, that teams can suddenly click, apparently from nowhere, but actually in fact due to the slow accumulation of work and trust on the training ground.

But then Juventus, under Andrea Agnelli, generally manage to get out of their Champions League group. The last time they didn't was 2013/14, when they finished behind Real Madrid and Galatasaray, and that felt very much an oddity, given that they were halfway through steamrolling Serie A. This exit, by contrast, feels absolutely appropriate: Juve's domestic struggles and their European humiliation complement each other perfectly. Why wouldn't a side currently eighth in Serie A finish behind the league leaders in France and Portugal?

The question is even more pressing given the nature of Juventus' late flurry. On came the kids and suddenly there was energy, endeavour; suddenly Benfica were wobbling. You couldn't call it a totally convincing comeback that just ran out of time, not with the chances Benfica missed to kill the game. But it did provoke two thoughts, one quickly after the other. First, look at these exciting youngsters coming through at Juventus. Second, do the club really want them coming through under Allegri?

There are three clubs still actively and overtly working towards a European Super League. Juventus have now been knocked out of the Champions League, and another - Barcelona - will almost certainly be eliminated this evening. Real Madrid's ongoing competence means we can't exactly talk about a curse, which is a shame, but this does at least serve to expose the workings.

The point of a Super League is to ensure that if Juventus do, by some inexplicable quirk of fate, find themselves to be less good at football than Benfica, then this doesn't lead to them losing money or losing glamour fixtures. It is, therefore, explicitly anti-football: it divorces progress in the game from the consequences of playing the game. Accordingly, Juventus getting knocked out by Benfica isn't just funny, it's ideologically correct: anti-anti-football. All power to Benfica. Barcelona last season, Juventus this... truly, they are the Robin Hood of European football.

(...)"

Andi Thomas, in Eurosport