Giorgio Chiellini has praised Massimiliano Allegri for taking the Serie A club to the next level thanks to Wednesday night's 3-0 win at Borussia Dortmund.
After last season's disappointing exit from the Champions League in the group stage, Juve have now equalled their best achievement under Allegri's predecessor Antonio Conte and Chiellini believes the former Cagliari and AC Milan deserves the credit.
"We're grateful to Conte for what he gave us, but our project has not stood still. It's moved on and grown even more. Against Borussia, we were always alert and we never had any fear. At the start of the year, we lost control of games from time to time, but that's not happening anymore."
Two years ago, Bayern Munich ended the Bianconeri's European hopes in a one-sided tie. Chiellini hopes there will not be a rematch this time around, saying he would prefer to avoid Pep Guardiola's men.
"There are undoubtedly some sides who are a cut above the rest, and these are Real, Barcelona and Bayern Munich," added the 30-year-old. "These sides are ahead of the rest, but it's important for us to be involved.
"Our aim is to go all the way while being aware of the difficulties we will face, but also aware of our ability. This group of players is getting better, but I'm sure we can and must still improve."
Analysing Juve's potential rivals in Friday's draw, La Gazzetta dello Sport suggested Porto and Monaco would be ideal, while a rematch with Atletico Madrid, whom Juve met in the group stage, would not be a bad draw. Avoiding Barca, Real and Bayern is seen as the priority.
The German media reflected on the 5-1 aggregate defeat by declaring that Dortmund's years in the spotlight of European football are over for now.
"The dream is over," kicker wrote, with the magazine cover -- a picture showing the outstanding choreography of the BVB crowd referencing their 1997 triumph against Juventus -- accompanied with the message that "only the fans showed class."
The magazine headline read: "Dortmund only a shadow of days gone by," and noted that BVB -- recently one of the best teams in Europe but currently stuck in midtable in the Bundesliga -- now face a "dismal" run-in to the end of the season.
Local daily Ruhr Nachrichten's headline read: "Painful exit," and complained that "Dortmund said goodbye to Champions League for an undefined period of time" with their defeat against Juve.
"Dortmund's dream tutti kaputti," tabloid Bild headlined and slammed all but two Dortmund players, Mats Hummels and Roman Weidenfeller. Like kicker, Bild noted that everything but the pregame choreography resembled a nightmare on Wednesday.
"Paralysed after three minutes," Suddeutsche Zeitung headlined referring to Tevez's opening goal of the night, and wrote of BVB's coach: "A lot has to have happened to see Jurgen Klopp with an open mouth, silent, experiencing the events horrified."
The Neue Zurcher Zeitung said that "an unimaginative Dortmund experienced a debacle," highlighting how easy it was for Juventus to increase their lead from the first leg.
"Already at half-time resignation spread. Not only on the pitch but also among the spectators, who would no longer buy into the theory that their team will score a goal," they said.
Die Welt wrote: "The successful Champions League era has come to an inglorious end," while Der Spiegel was stunned by Marco Reus' drop in form in recent weeks, writing: "He was world-class for three weeks following his contract extension, and now was nowhere to be seen."
Der Westen summed up it when headlining that for Borussia, who will likely not return to Champions League next year: "The times of plenty are over."
ESPN FC correspondent Stephan Uersfeld contributed to this report.
