Return To Serie A
Juventus played outside of Serie A for the first time ever, in the 2006-07 season; their first game in Serie B ended in a 1-1 draw away to Rimini. The initial 30-point—the equivalent of having 10 wins count for nothing—made it very likely that Juve would not return to Serie A until 2008 at the earliest, but the eventual reduction to nine points gave the club a fighting chance of returning to the top flight.
During December 2006, two 17 year old Juventus youth team players; Alessio Ferramosca and Riccardo Neri died at the clubs training center after trying to recover a football that had fallen into the ice-cold water. Former player Didier Deschamps took over as manager. By May 2007 Juventus was assured of finishing no worse than second, clinching a spot in Serie A for the next season. They finished the season as champions.
Since their return to Serie A in the 2007–08 season, former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri managed Juventus for two seasons. They finished in third place in their first return season, and qualified for the 2008–09 Champions League third qualifying round in the preliminary stages. Juventus reached the group stages, where they beat Real Madrid in both home and away legs, before losing in the knockout round to Chelsea. Ranieri was sacked following a string of unsuccessful results, and Ciro Ferrara was appointed as manager on a temporary basis for the last two games of the season, before being subsequently appointed as the manager for the 2009–10 season.
However, Ferrara's stint as Juventus manager proved to be unsuccessful, with Juventus knocked out of Champions League and Coppa Italia, and just lying on the sixth place in the league table at the end of January 2010, leading to the dismissal of Ciro Ferrara and naming Alberto Zaccheroni as caretaker manager. Zaccheroni could not help the side improve, as Juventus finished the season in seventh place in Serie A. For the 2010–11 season, Jean-Claude Blanc was replaced by Andrea Agnelli as the club's president. Agnelli's first action was to replace Zaccheroni and Director of Sport Alessio Secco with Sampdoria manager Luigi Delneri and Director of Sport Giuseppe Marotta. However, Delneri failed to improve their fortunes and was dismissed. Former player and fan favourite Antonio Conte, fresh after winning promotion with Siena, was named as Delneri's replacement.
With Conte as manager, Juventus went unbeaten for the entire season. Towards the second half of the season, the team was mostly competing with northern rivals Milan for first place in a tight contest. Juventus won the title on the 37th matchday, after beating Cagliari 2–0, and Milan losing to Internazionale 4–2. After a 3–1 win in the final matchday against Atalanta, Juventus became the first team to go the season unbeaten in the current 38-game format. Other noteworthy achievements include the biggest away win (5–0 at Fiorentina), best defensive record (20 goals conceded) in Serie A and second best in the top six European leagues. Juventus' unbeaten run of 49 games came to a halt, when a spectacular performance by fierce rivals Inter, humiliated them at home 3-1.
Read more about this topic: History Of Juventus F.C.
Famous quotes containing the words return to and/or return:
“This spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Primo Levi (1919–1987)