Why are you completely ignoring the fact that Serie A back then used to have 6-7 teams that were strong enough to challenge for the title?
https://myoutlookonfootball.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/a-golden-era-of-serie-a-the-seven-sisters/
I'm not. Juventus didn't come close to challenging for the title. It was a team at the end of a cycle, with a manager that was leaving at the end of the season and then announced in December he was going to inter of all teams, who spent half the season feuding with his players and the other half(until he was sacked/resigned) feuding with management. The change in coach did improve them but never to a point where they were truly a great side. Or at least not on the level of the actual great sides in Italy that season
If you're counting that juventus side as a great team you should do the same for barcelona 07/08(same situation, actually better team), or real madrid or last season or this one, or barcelona of the last 2 seasons, etc...
And the World Cup winning captain Deschamps. Either way they had incredible experience at the highest level right through the side. They were bookies favourites. They may have been having an off-season domestically but I remember Gary Neville's reaction when finding out Juventus had got out of the group stages and he rolled his eyes and sighed, which pretty much summed it up for Utd fans and all the other sides left in the competition. Juventus was the team you didn't want to play against in the knock outs.
Yeah, and real madrid was coming off 3 straight CL wins last season. Great side?
Going into the game, Juventus were the Serie A champions and runners up of the previous CL, were they not? They had made the final 3 consecutive years at that point.
See above
Just demonstrates how strong the Italian league was back then.
Eeeeh. I actually think that was the season when the power started to shift from italy to spain. I'd say barcelona were probably better than any italian side that season. United obviously as well, and Bayern
Maybe lazio was at that level
No but yeah, maybe the top wasn't quite THE top but definitely the teams below(parma, fiorentina, roma, bologna, etc) were still the best around. Probably. I mean two teams in the UEFA semis and won both the UEFA and CWC(though this was lazio) so...