Juventus have sacked manager Maurizio Sarri after Friday's UEFA Champions League elimination, the club announced. It did not take Juve long to find Sarri's replacement. Andrea Pirlo was named the new Juventus manager just hours after Sarri was fired. Pirlo, a 41-year-old Italian legend and World Cup winner, played for Juventus from 2011-15 after a decade of brilliance at AC Milan. He doesn't have any top-level coaching experience but was named the manager of the Juventus U23 team last month.
Juventus earned a 2-1 win over Lyon on Friday in the round of 16 second leg (watch match replay on CBS All Access), but it wasn't enough as it finished 2-2 on aggregate with the French club moving onto the quarterfinals thanks to away goals. Sarri was sacked less than 24 hours after the result.
Sarri arrived at the club from Chelsea before the season in June of 2019 but did not last more than one campaign. He helped the team narrowly win Serie A, but lost the Coppa Italia final to his old club, Napoli. The lack of success in Champions League was the final straw with the board, especially after the €100 million transfer ($118 million) to snatch Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid back in 2018.
Juve struggled toward the end of the season, stumbling to the Italian league crown by one point over Inter Milan. Juve had won just two of eight games entering Friday's match.
Pirlo also played for New York City FC in Major League Soccer from 2015-17.
