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Soccer
Are Juventus back to being a Serie A force?
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“Are Juve back?” is one of those questions that feels loaded, because with Juventus, it never really means “are they good again?” – it means “are they them again?” The serial winners, the inevitability merchants, the side that made Serie A feel like a procession rather than a competition.
For most of this season, the answer has been a fairly emphatic no. But as April drifts toward May, the question is no longer rhetorical.
Look at the table as it stands and Juventus are fourth, sitting on 63 points from 33 games, three behind AC Milan and Napoli. That gap is not trivial, but nor is it prohibitive, particularly when the momentum has swung so sharply in their favour.
Juventus continue Champions League chase
Highlights from Juve's win over Bologna
Napoli have stumbled their way out of any lingering title conversation, Milan remain functional rather than frightening, and suddenly, Juventus are the ones nobody particularly wants to face.
The recent results only strengthen that sense. Unbeaten since late February and a run of three successive Serie A victories form the backbone of a spell that is less about aesthetic brilliance and more about something far more familiar: accumulation. Juventus are, once again, collecting points in a way that feels sustainable rather than streaky.
And yet this is not a throwback Juventus built on grizzled cynicism and defensive suffocation. If anything, the most intriguing element of this late surge is how modern it looks.
Kenan Yildiz, still only 20, has become their attacking reference point, hitting double figures in the league and carrying a creative burden that would once have been unthinkable for someone so young.
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Around him, there is a supporting cast that hints at a different kind of Juve future. Francisco Conceicao brings chaos and unpredictability, the kind of wide threat Juventus have lacked for years, while Khephren Thuram offers a blend of athleticism and technical security that allows them to play through teams rather than merely contain them.
This matters, because the question is not just whether Juventus can finish second this season – though that is now a very real possibility with a direct clash against Milan looming – but whether this is the beginning of something more significant.
Inter, barring something extraordinary, will take the title. They are too far ahead, too consistent, too settled. But behind them, the hierarchy is shifting. Napoli look exhausted, Milan look limited, and Juventus suddenly look… unfinished, in the most encouraging sense of the word.
There is still plenty missing. This remains a side that can drift in games, that still leans on moments rather than patterns, that has not entirely shaken the inconsistencies that plagued the winter months.
But crucially, the direction of travel has changed. Earlier in the season, Juventus looked like a team trying to remember what they were. Now they look like one figuring out what they might become.
Which is where the “back” debate becomes complicated. They are not back in the sense of dominance; there is no aura yet, no sense that the outcome is inevitable before a ball is kicked.
But they are back in the conversation, back in the Champions League places, back in the kind of form that forces everyone else to take notice.
And perhaps most importantly, they are back to being interesting.
If they do leapfrog Milan and Napoli in these final weeks, it will not just be a quirk of fixture timing or rivals collapsing. It will be evidence of a team learning how to win again.
Add another summer of development for Yildiz, Conceicao and Thuram, and the question for the rest of the league next season may not be “are Juve back?” It may be “how did we let them get here again?”
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