Juventus Update: The difficult part of the season starts now

In January and February, Juventus consolidated second place in Serie A and reached the Italian Cup semi-finals. After beating Genoa 2-0 in the last 16, the Bianconeri went on to face city rivals Torino in the quarter-finals.

On December 23rd, a big Serie A match took place between Juve and Roma, where we won 1-0 - winner scored by former Roma player Medhi Benatia - then we won 3-1 over Verona. In the quarterfinals Juve beat Torino 2-0 and progressed to the semi-final against Atalanta.

Continuing the way in the league, the Bianconeri won 1-0 against  Cagliari in a hard-fought match, 1-0 with Genoa and 2-0 with Chievo Verona.

In the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal, Juventus has the best in Atalanta's home: 1-0 for us with the return game to be played on February 28th.

Then a record-breaking match: in the league Juventus beat Sassuolo 7-0, with goals from Alex Sandro, Miralem Pjanic, Sami Khedira's double and Gonzalo Higuaín's hat-trick.

Then on February 9th we obtained three very important points, winning 2-0 against Fiorentina.

Finally, on February 13th the Champions League returned, playing against Tottenham at the Allianz Stadium: after an initial Juventus lead of 2 goals (double by Pipita Higuaìn), we were pegged back by Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen in a match that finished 2-2.

It was a pity to draw in a game that we were on our way to winning, but now our guys are going to put it all in the challenge back to Wembley, which will be played on March 7th.

Last week we played the Derby della Mole in the league, at  Torino's football stadium, where we won 1-0 thanks to a precious goal from Alex Sandro.

Juventus continue to be second in the Serie A standings just a point behind Napoli, who continue to win and are making this an exciting title race.

January and February were somewhat unlucky months - we lost a lot of players due to injury, starting with Paulo Dybala, injured against Cagliari, but now the Argentine is back on the pitch.

Even our captain, Gianluigi Buffon, who recently turned 40, is back on the pitch. Juan Cuadrado, however, has been injured for more than a month with a groin problem and is still out but is about to return, as are Mario Mandzukic and Blaise Matuidi.

Against Torino, there were two injured players: Higuain and Federico Bernardeschi. The former, a less serious ankle problem with a week's layoff. The latter a slightly more serious problem: he  will be out for a few weeks and is at risk for the Champions League return challenge.

Marko Pjaca, fully recovered at the end of December, was loaned to German team Schalke 04 until the end of the season, for 1.5 million euro.

Juve are believed to still be monitoring Emre Can - at the beginning of January it was almost certain that the German midfielder should have arrived in June for about 4.5 million, but other clubs have been linked to the player, even if our club will not give up.

It seems set for Dennis Praet of Sampdoria to join Juve 25 million, but the player will remain in Genoa until June and then could pass to the black and whites.

Juve continue the Juventus Women project: our girls are very strong, so far they have played 14 games (between Championship and Italian Cup) and have won them all!

Our Under 21 guys have left the Italian Cup and the Champions League, but they are in the running for the Championship. Meanwhile, a few days ago, the documentary about Juventus and the life of our players outside the field came out on Netflix.

Juventus must now take care against Tottenham and put it all to pass the Champions League quarters, and stay competitive for the championship and Italian Cup! Now the hard part of the season is starting!

Thank you to Leo from Daje Juve for this article. Follow them on Instagram by clicking here.

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