Despite winning at Udinese in Serie A, Juventus did not earn a spot in the Europa League

In their last Serie A encounter of the year on Sunday, Juventus defeated Udinese 1-0 courtesy to a goal from Federico Chiesa, but they were unable to clinch a place in the Europa League for the next year.

Juve’s dreams of earning a spot in UEFA’s second-tier tournament were crushed when Atalanta defeated Monza 5-2 and when Roma defeated relegation-threatened Spezia 2-1 to claim the Europa League spots.

Roma’s Paulo Dybala converted a penalty in the 89th minute to give Jose Mourinho’s team the victory, putting Wednesday’s Europa League final loss behind them.

With 62 points, Juventus finished seventh and earned a spot in the Conference League. Atalanta (64) and Roma (63) finished the season in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Juve slid to eighth last month after receiving a 10 point deduction for their transfer activities from an Italian football court.

Gleison Bremer and Dusan Vlahovic were also out Sunday for Massimiliano Allegri’s team, who have struggled with injuries all season. Angel Di Maria began the game on the bench.

Allegri characterized Juve’s campaign as complex, pointing out that the team had first been penalised 15 points, but that decision had been overturned after an appeal.

Without the ensuing 10-point penalty, which eliminated them from the Champions League berths, they would have placed third.

a “DIFFICULT YEAR”

No one can take that away from me since I led the squad to third place on the field and the 10-point penalty was not our fault, Allegri said to Sky Sport Italia.

This year was both challenging and beautiful. The (Udinese) game was mostly meaningless. Simply put, I want to thank everyone who assisted me at the Continassa (training facility).

In response to a question concerning his future, Allegri said, “I’m not discussing any contract termination, I still have two years on the deal.”

Udinese played defensively in the first half as Juventus controlled possession since they had nothing to lose.

Leonardo Bonucci almost gave Juventus the lead just after the half-hour mark, but his thunderous header from a corner kick hit the crossbar.

Chiesa skillfully sent the ball into the bottom corner from 15 yards out to break the scoreless tie in the 68th minute.

At the Olympic Stadium, there was tension as Roma sought to recover from their agonizing penalty shootout loss to Sevilla in the Europa League final. Mourinho’s inability to stand on the sidelines because of a suspension increased the tenseness.

In order to escape relegation or a relegation playoff, Spezia was likewise anxious for the points. Dimitrios Nikolaou’s header gave Spezia the lead after six minutes, but Nicola Zalewski equalized two minutes before halftime.

After shoving Stephan El Shaarawy with only two minutes remaining, Spezia’s Kelvin Amian Adou was sent out for receiving a second yellow card, and Dybala successfully converted the resulting penalty.

We certainly deserved better this evening. After playing well, we lost in the last seconds, said Spezia manager Leonardo Semplici to DAZN. “We need to refuel and prepare carefully. Since it’s a knockout (playoff) game, mental preparation is essential.