24 January 2022
Six matches in the opening three weeks of 2022. An intense start to the year saw Juventus involved in the Italian Super Cup and the Italian Cup, other than Serie A. To close out the month, focus shifts to the international scene, and as expected, Bianconeri players are called upon to represent their respective countries.
In Europe, with the group stage winners having already qualified to the World Cup finals, the remaining qualification places will be decided through the Play-offs phase in March. Italy, who missed out on direct qualification to Qatar 2022, have opted to organise a training camp rather than play official matches.
Azzurri head coach Roberto Mancini has called up five Juve players, Giorgio Chiellini, Federico Bernardeschi, Manuel Locatelli, Luca Pellegrini and Mattia De Sciglio, for the three-day gathering at Italy FA’s official headquarters at Coverciano from Wednesday 26th to Friday 28th January.
It’s a different story in the Americas where official World Cup qualifiers will be played, including a clash between two Bianconeri. On November 27th, Argentina with Paulo Dybala travel to Chile, the same day that Rodrigo Bentancur’s Uruguay take on Paraguay, and Alex Sandro’s Brazil visit Ecuador.
The following day Colombia and Juan Cuadrado host Peru. The Juventus wideman will then go head to head with Dybala on February 1st when Argentina welcome Colombia. Wrapping up the South American fixtures are Uruguay-Venezuela and Brazil-Paraguay, also on the first day of February.
Potentially the busiest of the Juventus players on the international scene is Weston McKennie. The USA have three matches scheduled in one week: on January 27th versus El Salvador, three days later in Canada and February 2nd against Honduras.
