UCL | Monaco 0-0 Juventus: Spalletti seals play-offs

Juventus have confirmed that they will compete in the Champions League knockout play-off round after settling for a 0-0 draw away against AS Monaco in their final league phase match on Wednesday night.

The Bianconeri came into this evening’s tie knowing that even with a victory, they would need favours from several other sides if they were to reach the top eight. 

Luciano Spalletti made a few interesting personnel choices, including the decision to leave both Kenan Yildiz and Jonathan David out of the starting line-up in favour of Francisco Conceicao and Lois Openda. There were also opportunities for Teun Koopmeiners and Juan Cabal instead of Manuel Locatelli and Andrea Cambiaso. Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani and Arkadiusz Milik were unavailable through injury. 

You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.

Monaco sounded the alarms after just 90 seconds: Mattia Perin played an awful ball out from the back, which landed straight at the feet of Maghnes Akliouche. The Frenchman wasn’t ready for it, though, and fired a glorious early opportunity off target. 

A slightly sleepy Bianconeri side were caught out at the back on  a few occasions in the first period. Perin was successfully closed down by Balogun towards the end of the half, and Lloyd Kelly was also guilty of gifting Monaco possession deep into Juve territory. 

Balogun had the ball in the back of the net within the first quarter of an hour, but his goal was ruled out after a fairly quick VAR check, which confirmed that he had shoved Pierre Kalulu to the floor on his way into the area. 

The hosts, who were more desperate for points than Juventus, came close through the overlapping Vanderson, who forced a big save out of Perin at his near post midway through the first period. The Brazilian also tested the Juve stopper from distance a few minutes after. 

Openda registered Juventus’s closest chance of the first period, dragging just wide of the far post from a tough angle on the left of the area. 

Going in at the interval, and for much of the second half, a single goal would have sent Juventus into the top eight, and importantly, straight into the round of 16. 

Despite that fact, Juventus’s first shot of the second half came through late substitute Edon Zhegrova in the 94th minute. They were also unable to register a shot on target at all across the 90 minutes. 

Happy to settle for the draw, Juventus end their Champions League league phase campaign in 13th position, which means that they will be among the third seeds in Friday’s play-off draw. 

Monaco 0-0 Juventus