Juventus Wins Eighth Straight Serie A Title, Ties Fastest Championship Clinch
Juventus tied a record in winning its eighth straight Serie A title, clinching the top-flight championship with five games left to go.
Juventus's 2-1victory against Fiorentina on Saturday clinched the crown, adding to the club's national record with a 35th Scudetto (Juventus had two titles vacated during the Calciopoli scandal of 2006 and will maintain that this is its 37th championship).
Juventus's procession to the title was an untroubled one. The first blemish was a surprising 2-0 loss at Genoa on March 17 that ruined the club's hopes of an undefeated season. It missed out on becoming the fastest team to clinch the title when suffering its second loss vs. SPAL last Saturday. Aside from that, Juve has swatted away its chief competitors with relative ease, beating Napoli and AC Milan in home and away meetings with each and winning the matches it has had against Inter Milan and Roma so far, with one against each still remaining on the calendar.
Those matches will be of little consequence for Juventus, which tied Torino in 1947-48, Fiorentina in 1955-56 and Inter Milan in 2006-07 by securing the title with five matches still to play.
"Winning eight titles in a row isn't easy," Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "I hear talk of a title race that is not very interesting, but it is more credit to Juventus than lack of credit to the others."
The title celebrations are bittersweet, with them coming days after Juventus was eliminated from the Champions League by Ajax. The club acquired Cristiano Ronaldo last summer with the hopes of adding European success to its domestic dominance, but a second straight quarterfinal exit will leave a sour taste at the end of this season. In the league, Ronaldo is in the mix for the golden boot, with 19 goals on the season.
Another title Juventus won't win this season is Coppa Italia, with the Bianconeri suprisingly being dumped out by Atalanta in the quarterfinals, which put an end to its four-year streak of winning that trophy.