Holding a 2-1 lead from the first leg, Juventus travelled to Eindhoven to complete their UEFA Champions League Playoff against PSV but would eventually find themselves eliminated by Peter Bosz’s dynamic side.

The Dutch side hadn’t been beaten at the Philips Stadion in any competition since November 2022, a record they defended here, running out 3-1 winners to claim a 4-3 aggregate victory.

Meanwhile, their opponents Juventus came into this game on the back of four consecutive wins, a new record in the Thiago Motta era, with the most recent of those victories coming over bitter rivals Inter on Sunday, a match reviewed in detail in this previous column.

With Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Pierre Kalulu already missing, Juve lost another defender at the weekend with Nicolò Savona only fit enough for a place on the bench here.

That meant Lloyd Kelly — on loan from Newcastle United — started at left back, but the Turin giants would suffer yet another injury at the back just 12 minutes after kick off against PSV.

As discussed here, Renato Veiga had made a great start to life at Juve, making it somewhat alarming to him limping off after having his heel trodden on in an otherwise innocuous looking challenge.

However, after Thiago Motta sent Andrea Cambiaso into action on the left — with Kelly moving inside to replace the injured Veiga — and the Juve boss will have been impressed by the impact of his substitute.

Cambiaso, still recovering from an issue of his own, quickly settled into the game and soon forced a fine save from goalkeeper Walter Benítez after a superb pass from Manuel Locatelli.

Genoa-native Cambiaso then showed his quality at the other end, calmly chesting the ball back to Michele Di Gregorio after a dangerous cross from Noa Lang, who then had a shot blocked by Kelly with half time approaching.

After the break however, PSV looked revitalised. Former Inter winger Ivan Perisic fired a warning shot right at the Juve ‘keeper, then the effervescent Lang hit the side netting from a narrow angle.

It would be the same two men who combined to finally open the scoring, Lang getting past a couple of defenders before playing a perfect pass to Perisic who fired it into the back of the net.

Having also scored in the first leg, the Croatia international took his personal tally against Juve to six in just 18 appearances. Lang then narrowly shot wide, before Federico Gatti was called into action to clear a Luuk de Jong header off the line from a corner as the home side enjoyed a spell of complete dominance.

The Old Lady fought back control however, PSV failing to clear a free kick from Teun Koopmeiners and looking on helplessly as Tim Weah lashed a shot into the back of the net from long range.

Initially ruled out for offside against Kelly, a VAR Review ruled the defender was not interfering with play. Yet despite getting back in front, Juve were slowly beginning to find themselves getting overrun, and it was no surprise to see Ismael Saibari tie things up once again on 74 minutes.

Just moments later, Thiago Motta would make a triple substitution as he sent on Savona, Khéphren Thuram and Kenan Yildiz. But while it made sense to withdraw Francisco Conceição and Koopmeiners, the Coach’s decision to withdraw Locatelli appeared to be their undoing.

Before going off, the 27-year-old had been dominant in midfield, statistics from WhoScored.com showing he had registered one tackle, two interceptions and three clearances, as well as providing ammunition for those ahead of him with some smart passing.

Without him, PSV completely took over. Guus Til and Tyrell Malacia both creating chances for Saibari, before Di Gregorio made an excellent stop to deny Lang a late goal and force the game into extra time.

A clever set piece then allowed Johan Bakayoko to fire a cross back across the six-yard box, Di Gregorio kicking away what would have been an own goal from Gatti but powerless to stop Ryan Flamingo smashing the rebound into the back of the net.

Juve had chances at the end, but in truth never looked like scoring. “It hurts so much because we had it in our hands and threw away qualification,” Locatelli told Prime Video Italia afterwards.

“Now, we need to come together and get out of this moment, but it hurts a lot,” the Captain continued. “Right now, I don’t have an explanation. They played better than us. They wanted it more.”

The result means that all three Italian teams who reached the Champions League play-offs were eliminated, with AC Milan losing to Feyenoord and Atalanta being knocked out by Club Brugge.

That leaves Inter as the only Serie A representative still in the competition, and sends Juventus back to focus on their quest for a top four finish when they take on Cagliari this Sunday.