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With Juventus just one win away from expectedly winning the Serie A title for an incredible eighth consecutive season, their attention would turn to the one competition which they truly have their hearts set on winning.
With record 34 Serie A and 13 Coppa Italia wins, Juventus are by far the most successful club in Italian football history. However, for all of their domestic dominance, the Bianconeri have woefully underperformed on the continent.
The Turin giants have triumphed in the Champions League a paltry two times, but have not won Europe's premier club competition since 1997, painfully losing four finals since then.
This season, they have made steady gains and their incredible comeback to eliminate Atletico Madrid in the last round gave their fans renewed hope that this is the season where their beloved club could go all the way.
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However, for all of their optimism, Juventus might fall short once again this season. In this piece, we shall be highlighting five reasons why they might not win the Champions League this season.
#5 Ronaldo's injury
Cristiano Ronaldo was the star of the show in the last round against Atletico Madrid, almost single-handedly eliminating the Spaniards with a hat-trick to extinguish their dreams of contesting the CL final on their home turf.
Two weeks later, the 34-year-old was on international duty when he pulled up in the first half clutching his legs, with Juventus fans fearing the worst.
Tests revealed the five-time Ballon d'Or winner had hurt his hamstring and was ruled out for a period of three to four weeks, but knowing Ronaldo and his superb dedication, he worked extra hard in a bid to return earlier, with reports indicating that he had to be restrained from playing through pain for Juventus.
Updates from the club suggest that he is in line to make his return in the match against Ajax, but regardless of his superhuman abilities, he is sure to not be at 100%.
Even worse is the fact that hamstrings are always recurring injuries and for every sprint Ronaldo makes, pressure is put on the hamstring, further increasing the chances of a recurrence.
Given that Ronaldo just turned 34, his recovery speed is significantly less than it was when he was younger and as such, Juventus fans would be hoping that he does not suffer another injury setback heading into this crunch stage of the Champions League as it could negatively affect their chances of triumphing.
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#4 Few players have experienced winning the Champions League
For all of the team trophies won by the current Juventus players, they are painfully short when it comes to Champions League winning experience.
Off the current squad, only Cristiano Ronaldo, Sami Khedira and Mario Mandzukic have tasted glory on the continent, and in the long run this dearth of experience could come back to haunt them.
Even though winning league titles requires consistency and concentration over a nine-month period, with the club showing the most of these two criterion triumphing, the Champions League operates by much different rules.
The knockout nature of the competition means that only clubs who can step up to the occasion on the nightly progress, with the big game players bringing their experience to the fore.
This is largely why Real Madrid triumphed in each of the last three editions despite struggling everywhere else, as they possessed multiple big-game players who knew how to bring their A game over 180 minutes of knockout football to qualify.
However, Juventus has not quite reached that level of continental experience and this could ultimately cost them in their quest for a first Champions League trophy in 22 years.
#3 Their dependence on Ronaldo
When Juventus broke the bank to sign a 33-year-old last summer, many scoffed at them for throwing such money away, but the Bianconeri very much knew what they were doing, as they saw the Portuguese icon as the final piece in their puzzle to win the long sought after crown.
Rightly so too, as over the years, Ronaldo has shown himself to be unarguably the greatest performer in the history of this illustrious competition.
With 124 goals, he is the tournament's record goalscorer, while he also holds the record for most knockout goals, most trophies won, most assists and joint-most hat-tricks but to name a few.
His display in knocking Atleti out shows he is still very much in his mojo and is more than capable of leading the Italian giants to the trophy with his big-game performance.
However, it is pertinent to note that for all of his seemingly extraterrestrial abilities, Ronaldo is very much human.
There have been occasions in the past (rather few) when Ronaldo did not step up to the plate at a time his team needed him most, failing to perform at his usual supreme standards.
Examples of this are in the semifinals and final of the Champions League last season, but thankfully, Real Madrid had other world-class performers like Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema who stepped up in Ronaldo's stead.
What if? Just what if Ronaldo fails to deliver in the semifinal say against a Manchester City or in the final against a Barcelona, would Juventus have the players to take the mantle in his absence? I personally don't think so.
#2 Recent history does not favor them
It should already be fairly common knowledge by now that Juventus last won the Champions League in 1997.
In that time, they have come painfully close on multiple occasions, but failed to land their hands on the elusive prize.
Real Madrid have been the final hurdle on two occasions - in 1998 and 19 years later in 2017, while AC Milan and Barcelona have foiled their party plans on one occasion each in 2003 and 2015 respectively.
There have also been other knockout appearances, but for all of their best efforts, Juventus have not quite been able to cross the finish line.
This is a bad trend that the club would be determined to end, but as we have seen over time, history has a way of repeating itself and in Juventus's case, it could play a role in denying them the Champions League once again.
#1 The pressure could see them choke
Of all the clubs left in the Champions League, Juventus arguably face the biggest pressure to win the trophy, as anything other than that would be classified as a disaster.
The club have been desperate to win the trophy for some years now and the addition of Ronaldo further increased the pressure, as in the eyes of fans and neutrals alike, the Old Lady no longer had any excuse not to go all the way.
This has put the players in a position in which winning the Champions League is almost a do or die affair, with the expectation levels of the fans sky high such that failure cannot be tolerated.
While this could serve as motivation for them to go all the way, more often than not it ends up doing the opposite as players cave in to the pressure and fail to step up when it really matters.
Football is very much more of a psychological one than it is physical and players go through the same emotional rollercoasters that the rest of us face.
History is littered with overwhelming favorites who buckled in the face of the enormous pressure facing them to succeed, with Brazil's infamous capitulation at the 2014 World Cup on home soil perhaps serving as the best example of this and this immense pressure on Juventus could also prove calamitous in their quest for 'The Big Ears'.
