Juventus lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Fabio Cannavaro following relegation for match-fixing as Real Madrid won first La Liga title for four years with Juve’s manager and David Beckham 11 years ago
Pair to meet in Champions League quarter finals — but there was a much bigger gap between them in 2007
JUVENTUS and Real Madrid are ready to battle it out for a place in the Champions League semi-final.
The champions of Italy face the kings of Spain less than a year on from meeting in final in Cardiff.
However, 11 years ago, the two sides were at opposite ends of the footballing spectrum.
While one was winning a first league title for four years against all the odds, the other was languishing in the second tier.
Here, we take a journey back to look at how their seasons unfolded.
In May 2006, Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina were found guilty of match-fixing and would face serious charges.
The Bianconeri were punished the most severely and, after numerous appeals, were relegated to Serie B, deducted nine points and stripped of the two Serie A titles they’d won in the previous two seasons.
Italy’s other guilty quartet all faced fines and points deductions, but kept their top-flight status.
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Relegation hit the Turin side hard as they lost many of their top superstars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Patrick Vieira to Inter Milan.
And Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid also massively profited from the Juventus exodus.
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The Catalans had become the best team on the Continent and had been La Liga champions for the past two seasons, with Valencia winning the title in 2004.
Lilian Thuram and Gianluca Zambrotta moved to the Nou Camp from Juventus, while Los Blancos helped themselves to World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson, as well as manager Fabio Capello, who made a return to the Bernabeu.
While, with such a deficit to start the season with — and opponents such as Napoli and Genoa in Serie B — promotion was not a given for Juventus.
But they were boosted by the news Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet would stay on, while Didier Deschamps, who had led unfancied Monaco to the Champions League final two years earlier, replaced Capello in the hotseat.
However, their incomings included the likes of Newcastle flop, Jean-Alain Boumsong — which was a stark reminder of where they found themselves.
Their first match of the season yielded a 1-1 away at Rimini, before they found their stride with an eight-game winning streak.
Buffon would also go on a run of six matches without conceding until a 1-1 draw, but would pick up the first red card of his career two games later at AlbinoLeffe.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid were boosted by their new signings — which included Ruud van Nistelrooy — as they looked likely to put in a much better challenge than 12 months earlier when they finished 12 points behind Barcelona.
The first El Clasico of the season saw Los Blancos earn a 2-0 victory.
Meanwhile, Juve had to deal with a tragic event in December, when three youth players drowned in a frozen lake while trying to recover a football.
Their first dropped points at home of the season came against Arezzo when they let a 2-0 goal lead slip in the final ten minutes.
And that was followed by a first defeat of the season on January 13.
To add insult to injury, Juventus had to watch former defender Cannavaro win the Ballon d’Or at the end of the month.
However, it wasn’t all happy tidings at Real Madrid as they were plunged into crisis when David Beckham was banished from the first team after announcing he would be joining LA Galaxy at the end of the season.
But, with results taking a turn for the worse, he would eventually be called back by Capello and president Roman Calderon made a special visit to the training ground to apologise for comments made.
Juventus continued their good run and would suffer just one more defeat before sealing promotion with three games to spare — and the title just a match later.
Their final two matches of the season would both end in a loss.
Over in Spain, things were getting tense as Real Madrid were nicking late points and Barcelona were letting results slip at the death.
Matchday 34 was particularly pivotal with Los Blancos coming from 3-2 down to beat Espanyol 4-3 with a minute remaining, while the Catalans conceded a 90th-minute equaliser at home to Real Betis a day later.
And, in the very next game, Real Madrid thought they’d lost two priceless points when Recreativo equalised with four minutes remaining — only for Roberto Carlos to net a stoppage time winner.
In the penultimate match of the season, Barcelona could only draw 2-2 against Espanyol, as they conceded in stoppage time.
While Real Madrid rescued a 2-2 draw with 89 minutes on the clock.
The pair were level on points going into the final game of the season, but Capello’s side a better head-to-head, which meant victory at home to Mallorca would seal the title.
And, despite conceding first, two Jose Antonio Reyes goals helped them to a 3-1 win.
Juventus’ elite trio had led the Spanish giants to a first title in four years.
Real Madrid built on their success by retaining their La Liga title the following season.
While, for Juventus, promotion certainly didn't bring with it the kind of pulling power they had anticipated as the summer arrivals at the height of Hasan Salihamidzic and Jorge Andrade proved — and they laboured to third.
Amazingly, after 2008, Real Madrid would not win another title until 2012, which was the same season Antonio Conte led the Turin giants back to the Serie A summit.
In that time, Juventus suffered to two seventh-place finishes and were eliminated from at the Europa League group stage in 2010-11 after drawing all six games against Manchester City, Lech Poznan and Red Bull Salzburg.
But, in 11 years, Juventus have gone from the second tier to becoming Serie A's undisputed dominant side.