Juventus Make It Eight In A Row

But celebrations are flat after European exit.

- Paddy Agnew

There was a cruel, if poetic justice about the manner in which Juventus wrapped up a 35th league title with a 2-1 home win against Fiorentina. Notwithstanding the fact that, for many reasons, this was a historic night, there was a strangely anti-climatic feel to the occasion.

The Turin powerhouse had just become the first club from the big five European leagues to win eight consecutive domestic titles. Furthermore, Cristiano Ronaldo had just become the first player to have won the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A treble.

And yet even though Colombian star Juan Cuadrado jumped around like a crazy man, spraying white foam on the heads of team-mates and coach Massimiliano Allegri, these celebrations somehow looked just a tad ritualistic.

The point is that, four days earlier, Juventus had crashed out of the Champions League, eliminated in a quarter-final tie by Ajax. When Juventus sprang the “transfer of the century” last July, hiring Ronaldo from Real Madrid in a €340million deal, the idea seemed to be that he would represent the “icing” on the lavish Juve cake, the guy who would make that ultimate “difference”. That difference and that icing had a very clear name – the Champions League.