January’s Monthly Juventus Thoughts: Failure to launch

Juventus fans were promised a new era.

The club finally had money to spend on big transfers and were able to reinforce the most neglected area of the squad: the midfield. They also hired an exciting young coach in Thiago Motta, who would/should usher in a progressive, modern style of football at the club.

But here we are in February and I struggle to see how/if this team (and its performances) are better than they were last season. There have been little flashes here and there, but it has been far too inconsistent to give me much hope for better days.

With that joyful introduction out of the way, let’s review a month in which Juventus recorded just one victory in seven matches.

Broken promises

We started the month with the completely ridiculous annual trip to Saudi Arabia to give them our soul and all our money to play the Supercoppa mini-tournament. Juve played Milan — who had just sacked their coach Paulo Fonseca and hired Sérgio Conceição, the father of Juventus winger Francisco Conceição — in the semi-final of the competition a day after Inter beat Atalanta 2-0 in the other semi-final.

Juventus had a dominant first half and deservedly went into half-time with a 1-0 lead. Samuel Mbangula played a terrific through ball behind the Milan defense to Kenan Yildiz, who was in a 1-on-1 with goalkeeper Mike Maignan. The Turkish youngster fired a powerful shot past Maignan to give his team the lead.

We remained reasonably comfortable for most of the second half until the final 20 minutes of the game. Suddenly, there was new life in Milan. First, Manuel Locatelli committed a poor sliding tackle in the box on Christian Pulisic, who picked himself up and scored the equalizer from the subsequent penalty.

It was a quick one-two punch after that as Milan took the lead a few minutes later. Federico Gatti deflected a cross and Michele Di Gregorio, who had anticipated the cross but not the wicked deflection, was too far out of his goal to prevent the deflection from going in. An impressive 2-1 comeback victory for Milan and yet another game in which Juventus lose after taking the lead.

The Bianconeri then faced Torino in the final Derby Della Mole of the season. Yildiz scored for the second game in a row after a lovely piece of dribbling and a cracking low shot in the 8th minute. Despite being comfortable for most of the game, Juventus conceded an equalizer a few seconds before the half-time whistle. Yann Karamoh weaved his way from the wing to the center of the pitch and passed to Nikola Vlasic. The striker took one touch to flick the ball into the air before blasting a stunning half-volley off the inside of the near post and into goal. Torino carried this momentum on into the second half and put the Bianconeri under serious pressure but our defense held strong. Final score: 1-1.

From one draw to the next as Thiago Motta’s team traveled to face Scudetto-hopefuls Atalanta in Bergamo. Juventus dealt with Atalanta’s relentless press surprisingly well and came a picometer away from taking the lead in the 50th minute. Pierre Kalulu header from a corner hit the inside of the post and bounced along the goalline as it headed towards the back of the net. Somehow, goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi clawed the ball away just before it crossed the line. And when I saw just, I’m not kidding.

Thankfully, Kalulu would not be denied a second time. Makeshift center forward Weston McKennie (!) received a long ball and surged down the left side before playing a through ball to the overlapping Kalulu (!!) who for some reason joined the attack. It’s good that he did because he poked McKennie’s pass into goal to give his team the lead.

Photo by Daniele Badolato – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images

Atalanta equalized in the 78th minute through Serie A topscorer Mateo Retegui after a well-worked passing move. Raoul Bellanova towered over Andrea Cambiaso to head down a cross to Retegui, who snuck in front of Nicolo Savona to head the ball past Di Gregorio from close range. Despite the good performance against a tough opponent, Juventus only came away with a point from this entertaining game: 1-1.

The one and only victory of the month came at home against Milan in the league. It was an even match in the first half but Motta’s men completely dominated the second half. Juventus scored the first through a heavily deflected shot from the in-form Mbangula and the second from Weah’s low, driven shot after Khéphren Thuram played him through: 2-0!

Unfortunately, that positive momentum didn’t travel with us to Belgium where we faced Club Brugge on the seventh matchday of the Champions League. It was a largely forgettable match that ended goalless as both teams defended well but created little in attack.

The positivity from the Milan match completely disappeared when we traveled to Naples to face league-leaders Napoli. In a classic game of two halves, Juventus controlled the game reasonably well in the first half and took a (somewhat) deserved lead shortly before half-time. New signing Randal Kolo Muani scored a fantastic volley on the turn when Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa accidentally deflected a pass into the Frenchman’s path.

But that was unfortunately the last shot that Juventus would take for the remainder of the game as Napoli dominated the second half so comprehensively that we didn’t even attempt a shot in the second half. It was one of the most remarkable night-and-day performances I’ve seen in a long time, especially given that neither coach made substitutions nor significant tactical changes during half time.

The out-of-form (and still somewhat injured) Andrea Cambiaso made an error that resulted in Anguissa heading in a pinpoint cross from Matteo Politano to equalize for the hosts. Locatelli then gave away his second penalty in a month when he (again) made an errant slide tackle in the box, this time on Scott McTominay. Unfortunately, Romelu Lukaku scored the winning goal from the resulting penalty: 2-1.

Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images

The Bianconeri hosted Benfica on the final matchday of the League Phase of the Champions League and boy, was it depressing. Benfica took the lead early in the match when Federico Gatti misjudged a cross, which allowed Alexander Bah to pass to Vangelis Pavlidis who scored an easy tap-in. Despite barely having any possession, Benfica created the better chances and doubled their lead late in the game through Orkun Kokcu, who drilled a powerful low shot past Mattia Perin. Final score: 2-0. Juventus end the inaugural League Phase of the Champions League in an embarrassing 20th position.

Juventus Women

Juventus Women started the new year exactly where it left off: with a 3-0 victory. All goals came in the first half as Valentina Bergamaschi, Eva Schatzer, and Cristiana Girelli each scored a goal to help their team to an easy home victory over Sampdoria in the league.

The Bianconere then defeated Lazio 3-1 in the first leg of the Coppa Italia quarter finals. Barbara Bonansea scored just before half time but Lazio equalized through Martina Piemonte in the second half. Just when it looked like the game was going to end in a draw, Amalie Vangsgaard and Sofia Cantore scored in the last 5 minutes of the game to give Juventus a commanding victory going into the second leg. And as we’ll see later, these goals ended up being incredibly important…

Photo by Andrea Iommarini/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The team then suffered a 3-1 defeat against third-placed AS Roma. Giulia Dragoni gave Roma the shock lead in the third minute although Juventus dominated the remainder of the first half. Bonansea equalized for her team on the hour mark when her cross evaded everyone and went into goal. But Roma hit back with two goals in the last 20 minutes of the game to secure the victory. Manuela Giugliano and a penalty from Elena Linari (after Chiara Beccari committed a foul in the box) were enough to condemn Juventus to its first league defeat of the season.

The team returned to winning ways with a commanding 2-0 victory in the Derby D’Italia against Inter. Sofia Cantore and Cristiana Girelli scored the goals. Girelli’s goal was particularly special as it was her 200th appearance for Juventus!

Remember that commanding lead that Juventus had from the first leg of the Coppa Italia quarter final against Lazio? Well that evaporated after the first 45 minutes of the second leg on 30 January as Flaminia Simonetti and Zsanett Kaján scored in the first half to equalize the fixture on aggregate (3-3). Things went from bad to worse when Simonetti scored her second of the game as she slotted home on the rebound from goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx’s save (who plays in the cup instead of Pauline Peyraud-Magnin). Suddenly, Lazio were heading to the semi-final of the competition.

Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images

The momentum swung back in Juventus’ favor when Hanna Bennison delivered a corner that caused havoc in the box and resulted in Emma Kullberg getting the final touch to score. The game was level on aggregate again! But there was a final twist in this game when Cantore won a penalty in the 87th minute. Remarkably, goalkeeper Kerttu Karresmaa saved Girelli’s penalty but Kullberg was there to score the rebound. That was the last significant event in an action-packed, dramatic second-leg of the Coppa Italia quarter final.

A 3-2 loss for Juventus but the Bianconere win the fixture 5-4 on aggregate. They will face Fiorentina in the semi-final.