Juventus have made history by becoming the first club to win six successive Serie A titles.
The Bianconeri had seen their lead at the summit of the standings cut to a single point following Roma’s win at Chievo on Saturday but a 3-0 victory over Crotone less than 24 hours later saw Massimiliano Allegri’s men restore their four-point advantage with just one round of the season remaining, thus ending the title race.
Juve had last week blown the chance to seal the deal at the Stadio Olimpico, where they were beaten 3-1 by the Giallorossi. However, after returning to the same ground on Wednesday to lift the Coppa Italia courtesy of a 2-0 win over Lazio, a clearly reinvigorated Bianconeri were in no mood for another slip-up when they took to the field in Turin to face Crotone.
The relegation-threatened visitors desperately needed a positive result themselves but the Old Lady prevailed thanks to goals from Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala and Alex Sandro, sparking wild celebrations at the Juventus Stadium.
A sixth consecutive title caps a remarkable turnaround in Juve’s fortunes. Indeed, when Antonio Conte took charge of the club in 2011, the Bianconeri were coming off the back of two successive seventh-placed finishes.
However, the former Juve midfielder won the title in his first season at the helm – and without losing a single game, thus making the Bianconeri the first side to go through an entire league campaign undefeated since the switch back to 20 teams, in 2004.
Conte won two more titles (his third with a record haul of 102 points) before surprisingly parting company with the club during the summer of 2014.
As a result, Juve turned to Allegri and, although that decision was not initially well-received by the Bianconeri faithful due to the coach’s past association with Milan, he quickly won over the doubters.
Allegri’s Juve won Serie A and the Coppa Italia again last season – thus becoming the first side to claim back-to-back doubles – and are now in a position to go one better this term.
Indeed, with the Coppa Italia and now the Scudetto already in the bag, the Bianconeri will bid to win their third European Cup when they meet Real Madrid in Cardiff on June 3.
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