Juventus star Paul Pogba could be key to Champions League qualification after finally making season debut

Juventus Fans have been waiting for this day for a long time. Paul Pogba has finally played his first game of the season and also his first since his return to the Italian club in the summer on a free transfer from Manchester United. Coach Massimiliano Allegri decided to play him for the last twenty minutes of the game – a 4-2 victory over the city rival. Turin on Tuesday.

Juventus won the Derby della Mole after an exciting clash in which Torino scored the first goal one minute from Jan Karamo. Later in the first half, the Bianconeri equalized with Juan Cuadrado before Toni Sanabria again scored for the visitors. The first half ended 2-2 when Juventus scored Danilo again before half-time. In the second half, after Allegri decided to play Pogba and Frederic Church and the hosts scored the last two goals of the match through Gleison Bremer and with Adrian Rabiot.

The Italian giants are now just ten points behind the top four despite a 15-point deduction following a recent scandal that led to the club’s board resigning last November. Without this deduction (Juventus appealed this decision), the club would have been second in the table, fifteen points behind. Naples.

But the biggest news of the day and the near future was the return of the World Cup-winning midfielder. The French star began his youth career at Manchester United but then decided to move to Italy as a free agent to join Juventus, where he spent four years making 178 appearances, scoring 34 goals and 40 assists. . In doing so, he won four consecutive Serie A titles and a pair of Coppa Italia titles. He returned to Manchester United in the summer of 2016 after the English club paid a then-record transfer fee for his services. He knows what it takes to win at Juventus.

His second spell at United was not as successful as expected, but despite winning the UEFA Europa League under José Mourinho, they had a difficult relationship that saw the midfielder often remain on the bench. In the meantime, Pogba has had more success with France as he managed to win the 2018 World Cup. After signing for Juventus last summer, the midfielder has had serious injury problems that have forced him to miss the first half of the match. season. The player, against the will of the club, decided to undergo conservative therapy, which did not work, and later in September, the former Manchester United midfielder decided to undergo surgery and missed the 2022 World Cup.

When at the start of the new year it looked like his comeback was on the way, on 28 January Allegri announced at a press conference that Pogba was finally available again and included him in his squad for the Serie A match against Monza. The excitement ended fairly soon, however, as he developed a flexor problem during warm-ups that sidelined him for another month.

Now Pogba is back for real and that’s only good news for Allegri as he can count on him for the last stretch of the season. Juventus are currently 10 points behind the top four and could hope to return to the Champions League race as the Bianconeri also play Freiburg in the round of 16 of the UEFA Europa League. competition next season.

The Bianconeri are still in the Coppa Italia race and in the semi-final they will face Inter later next month. The winner of the national cup will be able to play in the next Europa League. Things are going better for Juventus now and Pogba’s return is exactly what they need to hope to play in the Champions League next season.

You can watch Juventus in Serie A and Europa League live on Paramount+.