Over the next two weeks, Juventus will make two very important trips to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. The first of those trips, could go a long way in finally wrapping up a Champions League spot, while the other will be Juve's one and final chance to win some silverware before the 2023-24 season comes to an end and a summer of expected change arrives.

That second trip to Rome - and the trophy that potentially comes with it - is very much on the horizon. But that first jaunt back over to the Italian capital is very much right in front of Max Allegri's squad.

They will actually face a Rome-based club this time around, as Juve open up the final four fixtures of the 2023-24 season against a very different kind of Roma squad than the one they saw a few days after Christmas. Four months ago, not only did Juventus' form look a whole lot different then it does now, but the meeting between Allegri and Jose Mourinho pitted two of the most risk-averse managers in Serie A. But now, with Mourinho gone after he was sacked just a couple of weeks after the 1-0 loss in Turin, former Roma captain Daniele De Rossi has rolled in and brought a new kind of energy that has seen the Giallorossi go from outside of a European spot to now sitting in Serie A's fifth and final Champions League spot.

It is one of those same Champions League spots that Juventus is seeking as well.

And because of how things have fallen to begin Matchday 35 in Serie A, Juventus could very well clinch a UCL spot with a win over Roma at the Olimpico on Sunday night.

Yes, the long nightmare of Juventus' second-half tumble could be over if they are able to claim one of the few wins they've actually recorded since the beginning of February. It would mean that both of the two main season objectives Max Allegri has been reminding us of every chance he gets - qualifying for the Champions League and getting to the Coppa Italia final - would have been achieved.

Both Juventus and Roma are coming off disappointing results the last time out. Albeit, they came on very different kinds of stages considering where both teams are these days.

Juventus dropped points for an astonishing 11th time in their last 13 league fixtures last weekend against a shorthanded AC Milan side that featured a second-string defense. A Champions League place is something that should have been secured weeks ago, but because of this form over the last three months, they've left it to the last four games of the season. And with who Juve have to face over these final four games, it's far from a certainty that they will wrap it all up this weekend and have the chance to focus on the Coppa Italia final when they face an already relegated Salernitana next weekend.

The hope, of course, is that Juve can take care of what they need to and get their Champions League spot secured come Sunday night.

The reality is that Juve are playing so poorly over these last three months - and it's not like things are getting much better - that expecting them to beat good times is stretching it.

And Roma are most certainly a good team. (Yes, despite the whole "Roma" thing.)

As Allegri noted in his pre-match press conference, Juventus will be facing a Roma side that is in strong form despite their loss on Thursday night to German champions Bayer Leverkusen - who have still yet to taste defeat in all competitions this season - in the first leg of the Europa League semifinals. Roma have been reborn under De Rossi, who has certainly done more than enough to have his contract extended beyond this season. Injecting much-needed energy after all of the Mourinho disfunction from the first half of the season, Roma has been one of the best teams in Serie A over the same time period in which Juventus has been one of the worst.

How different have things been? Let's take a look!

Since Juventus' draw with Empoli on Jan. 27 kicked off this tailspin, this is how it's gone:

Juventus: 13 games played, 13 points earned Roma: 13 games played, 27 points earned One team has seen their run over these last three months save their season (even though Sunday's game is very much a must-win when it comes to the Champions League). The other team has seen such a bright season go to absolute hell within the span of a couple of months, with just about everything feeling grateful for all those points from the first half of the 2023-24 campaign.

I don't want to think what it would be like these final four games if Juventus hadn't won as many games as they did up until the final weekend of January. Neither do you. So let's just hope that Juve can get this Champions League spot wrapped up and be done with it all.

TEAM NEWS It's not exactly been the best birthday weekend for Kenan Yildiz, who turned 19 years old Friday. The young Turk will miss the trip to Rome after coming down with gastroenteritis, according to Allegri. Yildiz had hoped to recover in time, but could only train away from the group on his birthday and then didn't train at all on Saturday, Allegri said. Alex Sandro is the other injured player who will be forced to watch the Juve-Roma matchup back in Turin. Sandro, on the cusp of breaking Pavel Nedved's record for most appearances by a foreign player at Juventus, suffered a muscle injury in training earlier this week. The two suspended midfielders, Nicolo Fagioli and Paul Pogba, are still suspended. However, Fagioli is now a little more than two weeks away from seeing his suspension come to an end on May 20. That would make him eligible to play in Juventus' season finale against Monza. There is a growing feeling in the Italian press that Timothy Weah could maintain his starting spot on the right wing, thus kicking Andrea Cambiaso either inside to play as a No. 8 like he did last weekend against Milan or over to the left wing in place of Filip Kostic. Weah and Cambiaso are the two Juventus players who are a yellow card away from suspension, by the way. When asked about the season as a whole, Allegri said: "Football is impossible to explain." JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH Wait, he's going to talk about one of the Americans again?

Yeah, he's gonna talk about one of the Americans at Juventus again.

As we know, his contract status is completely up in the air heading into the summer, so that could very well be weighing on his mind a little bit. We all know that a free spirit like McKennie certainly seems to play better when things are very much running on good vibes and not necessarily like they are right now for Juventus.

Since he recorded back-to-back games with two assists in early March, McKennie has recorded just one more assist - in Juve's win over Lazio in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal - and just hasn't had the same kind of effectiveness that he's had for the majority of his starts this season.

The easy reason to think things have happened in this way is because the dude is tired - which is very much valid at this point of the season. McKennie has played the second-most amount of minutes of any Juventus outfield player and the third most of anybody in bianconero if you throw Wojciech Szczesny into the mix. It's May and dude has every right to be tired considering the position(s) he's played and how much running he does on a game-by-game basis.

But Juve need McKennie to be more like the player who was such a pleasant surprise to close this season. Especially when you're going up a team like Roma who are going to play with an aggressive midfield that aren't afraid to go right at you. It's a big test for Juve, but also a big one for McKennie as his team is on the doorstep of Champions League qualification.

MATCH INFO When: Sunday, May 5, 2024.

Where: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy.

Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.

HOW TO WATCH Television: TNT Sports 4 (United Kingdom).

Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); discovery+, discovery+ app (United Kingdom); DAZN Italy, Sky Go Italia (Italy).