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Thiago Motta Fired as Juventus Coach. Igor Tudor Named as Replacement

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - Juventus v Atalanta - Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy - March 9, 2025 Juventus coach Thiago Motta REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - Juventus v Atalanta - Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy - March 9, 2025 Juventus coach Thiago Motta REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo
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Thiago Motta Fired as Juventus Coach. Igor Tudor Named as Replacement

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - Juventus v Atalanta - Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy - March 9, 2025 Juventus coach Thiago Motta REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - Juventus v Atalanta - Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy - March 9, 2025 Juventus coach Thiago Motta REUTERS/Massimo Pinca/File Photo

Thiago Motta was fired as coach of slumping Juventus on Sunday, with Igor Tudor named as a replacement for the rest of the season.
“The club would like to thank Thiago Motta and all of his staff for their professionalism and for the work they have carried out in recent months with passion and dedication,” Juventus said in a statement. “The club wish them the best of luck for the future.
“Juventus FC also announce that the men’s first team will now be led by Igor Tudor, who will take charge of his first training session tomorrow,” the club added.
Juventus conceded seven goals and scored none in its last two Serie A matches — 4-0 and 3-0 losses to Atalanta and Fiorentina, respectively — leaving the record 36-time champion in fifth place and at risk of not qualifying for the Champions League.
Motta, who was in his first season at Juventus after guiding Bologna to a Champions League spot in the last campaign, reportedly lost support of several key players in the changing room over recent weeks as Juventus was eliminated from the Champions League and Italian Cup.
Juventus was also eliminated by AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup semifinals in January.
Tudor played for Juventus for nearly a decade from 1998-2007 and has previously coached Udinese, Hellas Verona and Lazio in Italy.
Tudor was also an assistant coach to Andrea Pirlo at Juventus in 2020-21. Pirlo and Tudor were fired at the end of the season.
The 46-year-old Tudor will make his debut against Genoa next Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
Juventus will also play in the enlarged Club World Cup in the United States starting in June.
Motta has struggled all season to shed the defensive tactics instilled by his predecessor, Massimiliano Allegri, and Juventus has drawn 13 of its 29 Serie A matches.
Allegri was fired for his ugly outburst toward the referee and others in the Italian Cup final won by Juventus last season.
As a player, Tudor helped Juventus to win two Serie A titles, two Italian Super Cups and an Intertoto Cup — plus the 2007 Serie B title after the Bianconeri were relegated due to the Calciopoli scandal. He was then loaned to Siena before returning to Juventus but didn’t manage to play again for the Turin club due to injury.
Tudor was a starter in the 2003 Champions League final that Juventus lost to AC Milan in a penalty shootout.

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All Eyes on Tsunoda at Japan GP After Ruthless Red Bull Move 

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan smiles during a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan smiles during a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)
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All Eyes on Tsunoda at Japan GP After Ruthless Red Bull Move 

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan smiles during a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan smiles during a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)

Yuki Tsunoda will be center of attention at his home Japanese Grand Prix this weekend after joining Max Verstappen at a Red Bull team desperate to reel in McLaren following their ominous start to the season.

Tsunoda was already a hero at Suzuka but his sudden promotion at the expense of Liam Lawson puts him under a whole new level of scrutiny as partner to the four-time world champion Verstappen.

Red Bull axed Lawson last week after the New Zealander's disastrous start to his debut season, which saw him fail to score any points in the first two race weekends.

The 24-year-old Tsunoda steps up from sister team RB, with Lawson moving the other way to the team he drove for last season.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has told the Japanese driver to get as "close as possible" to Verstappen, said Tsunoda, whose highest finish at a race is fourth in 2021 at Abu Dhabi for RB, then called AlphaTauri.

"In the end Red Bull Racing are focused on Max scoring a drivers' championship," Tsunoda told the BBC.

"He also promised me, in some situations, that if I'm able to be in front of Max that he wouldn't necessarily ask me to swap positions and make Max win."

Tsunoda said he will be happy if he can finish in the top 10 and score points on his Red Bull debut.

Now in his fifth Formula One season, he has shown pace this season.

He was 12th in the season-opener at Melbourne then picked up three points for coming sixth in the Shanghai Saturday sprint.

He only finished out of the points in the China main race because of RB's flawed two-stop pit strategy.

Red Bull's cars will have a special white livery at Suzuka in tribute to their partner Honda's maiden victory in Formula One, in Mexico in 1965.

Verstappen is second in the drivers' standings but Horner needs his ruthless driver change to kick-start Red Bull's constructors' championship campaign after ceding early ground to McLaren.

- Suzuka specialist Verstappen -

Australia's Oscar Piastri led teammate Lando Norris to a one-two in Shanghai, after the Briton took the chequered flag in Melbourne.

"Apart from Ferrari I don't think there's another team that has two drivers that push each other anywhere near as much," said Norris, who leads the drivers' championship on 44 points.

"For us, that's a huge advantage."

Norris is 12 ahead of Verstappen with Mercedes' George Russell third on 35 and Piastri on 34.

Verstappen has yet to win this season -- he was second in Melbourne, fourth in the Chinese GP and third in the Shanghai sprint.

But the Dutchman has won in Japan for the last three years in a row, clinching his second world championship there in 2022, and has spoken frequently of his love for the "old school" Suzuka circuit.

He romped home 12.5sec clear of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez last season.

"Whenever I needed to go faster I could, whenever I needed to look after my tires I could," said Verstappen. "That's always a nice feeling."

Ferrari will be looking to get their season into gear in Japan after a calamitous outing in China two weeks ago.

The Italian team started the weekend on a high when Lewis Hamilton controlled the sprint from pole for his first win in Scuderia red.

But their joy turned to despair when the seven-time world champion and teammate Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from the main race for technical infringements.

Hamilton's former team Mercedes have made a solid start with a pair of third-placed finishes from Russell.

Teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli has also shown early promise, finishing fourth and sixth in his first two grands prix.