Subs come up big late against PSV, Juventus carry advantage into second leg

Juventus has been running a rather maddening game script the last few matches. They take the lead, then, often against the run of play, a major individual error leads to the opponent evening the score.

Fortunately, the last few times we’ve seen this particular sketch, the Bianconeri have been able to gather themselves and manage to retake the lead. Just like their last two outings against Empoli and Como, Juve were again able to straighten things out in time for someone, this time substitutes Francisco Conceição and Samuel Mbangula, to pull the result back to Juve’s corner.

The 2-1 win over PSV Eindhoven was the team’s third straight in all competitions — the first time they’ve managed that all year — and their second of the Champions League season against the Dutch champions, and gave them a slim lead headed into next week’s return leg in the Netherlands.

Thiago Motta was missing two key defenders in Andrea Cambiaso and Pierre Kalulu, as well as Arkadiusz Milik, but had Renato Veiga, Lloyd Kelly, and Randal Kolo Muani added to the Champions League roster. Motta’s 4-2-3-1 was once again on display, with Michele Di Gregorio in goal. Timothy Weah played his third straight game at right-back, joining Federico Gatti, Veiga, and Kelly in the back four. Manuel Locatelli and Douglas Luiz formed the double pivot in midfield, while Nico González, Weston McKennie, and Kenan Yildiz supported Kolo Muani in attack.

PSV manager Peter Bosz was missing a few of his important pieces. Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi were unavailable, as was full-back Rick Karsdorp, although Ivan Perisic was finally able to register for the Champions League after signing with the team as a free agent. Bosz put together his own 4-2-3-1. Walter Benítez set himself up in goal, with Richard Ledezma, Armando Obispo, Ryan Flamingo, and Mauro Júnior arrayed in front of him. Jerdy Schouten and Joey Veerman played in midfield. Perisic joined Ismael Saibari and Noa Lang behind ever-present striker Luuk De Jong.

Juve came out of the gates looking hungry and charged up. They immediately began pressing the visitors hard, and held a good deal of possession in the game’s opening phases. The first of many marauding runs from the back saw Weah force Benítez into early action, steering a cross/shot out of harm’s way. Kolo Muani got onto another cross but scuffed it badly. González had a shot parried away by Benítez, while on the other side Saibari had a few off-target pot shots, while a weak header from De Jong was easily held by Di Gregorio.

The visitors started to get themselves into the game after the first quarter of an hour, and in the 19th minute they came close to putting themselves in front when De Jong headed a corner back across and into the path of Flamingo, who could only manage a glancing shot tha bounced wide. Five minutes later, McKennie had to close down De Jong after Locatelli could only skip a free kick into his path.

Juve weren’t being totally eclipsed, and forced a pair of blocks around the half-hour mark, the latter of which came after Gatti bombed forward to the byline and nearly found Yildiz with a cross, only to see it cleared to the feet of Luiz, whose shot was blocked in close.

Gatti was likewise instrumental in the opening goal a few minutes later. He came crashing in to intercept a rather lazy clearance attempt and got himself to the byline a second time. He again targeted Yildiz with his cross, and this time chaos ensued in the box. The desperate defensive touch went right to Kolo Muani, whose first-time stab was denied point-blank by Benítez. Another attempt by PSV to clear was intercepted by a backtracking Gatti, who chested it down into the path of McKennie, who slammed an 18-yard first-time rocket into the roof of the net to provide the game’s first score.

A few chances to double the lead came five minutes before the half. A slick passing move through the box very nearly put Locatelli through in point-blank range, but a desperate tackle prevented the final ball from getting through. On the ensuing corner, Benítez’s punch went directly to González, but the Argentine’s header had nothing close to the kind of power or placement that it needed to get around his countryman.

Mbangula was called on to replace Yildiz after the break, and he very nearly put the game away six minutes into the new frame. Weah was again central to the move, jumping a pass and marauding forward to put the ball into the box. Mbangula was there to volley the cross toward goal, but a flying leap by Flamingo headed a sure goal off the line to keep the Eredivise side in it.

It wasn’t more than five more minutes before the game was level.

The equalizer wasn’t without some controversy, as the buildup saw Lang take the ball down with what looked to be his arm. No call was forthcoming, and Lang took a shot that was blocked by Locatelli but only enough to pop it into the air. The ball dropped down for Perisic, who completely bamboozled Kelly to open up a shooting lane and then fired a daisy-cutter that Di Gregorio got the barest of fingers two but couldn’t divert away from the bottom corner. A VAR check was made, but the German crew decided not to intervene, despite what looked like some pretty clear views that Lang took the ball down with the crook of his arm.

Motta immediately took measures to try to regain control, sending on Conceição, then making the same move he made against Como and changed the entire double pivot, bringing Teun Koopmeiners and Khephren Thuram. But the team looked somewhat shell-shocked after the equalizer, losing possession multiple times as the air seemed to be let out of the game. The good news was that PSV weren’t turning the screw with their momentum, putting the game into a precarious state of stalemate that invited either team to make one move to win the match.

With eight minutes left, it was Conceição who made the move, putting on a burst of speed to cook Mauro Júnior and get himself to the byline. His cross saw Benítez lunge to punch it away—but only managed to spill it a few feet in front of him, where Mbangula was waiting to pounce on the rebound from five yards out and put Juve back in the lead.

PSV made a push in the last eight minutes of the game, but Juve didn’t break, thanks in part to Veiga, who made a huge clearance on a Perisic cross after he got in behind the defense, then a block on Guus Til right in front of the net as stoppage time began. The last few added minutes were seen out with relative ease, and when the final whistle blew, Juve had an important lead to make a lucrative trip to the round of 16.

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 5.5. Getting beat at the near post is never a good look, and he really should’ve gotten there to do more than what he managed on that play. Otherwise pretty good.

TIMOTHY WEAH – 6.5. Absolutely took over on his side, including multiple forced turnovers that he was able to turn intod dangerous tuns into newest fast counterattacks. Easily his best game as a full-bakc

FEDERICO GATTI – 7. Bombed forward a few times to trigger some key attacks, and made four interceptions and four clearances while completing 98.1 percent of his passes.

RENATO VEIGA – 6.5. Made a couple of great plays in the back and is really making sopme strides in his chemistry with the rest of his teammates.

LLOYD KELLY – 4.5. Simply had no business getting spun around like that on such a simple move by Perisic. He has not made a good first impression.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – 5.5. Led the team in tackles and clearances (co-led), but some of his defensive efforts simply skewed the ball into more danger, and completed less than 70 percent of his passes.

DOUGLAS LUIZ – 6. Pretty solid in midfield, although he could’ve created some more danger with his passes, which were more on the conservative side.

Photo by Photo Prestige/Soccrates/Getty Images

NICO GONZÁLEZ – 5. Another game that felt lackluster. He finished with all three of his shots on target, but none was particularly troublesome and and he didn’t create much.

WESTON McKENNIE – 7. What a freaking goal. You can’t hit a shot like that any cleaner from him. He also had three key passes, more than anyone the entire game except De Jong on the other side. Fantastic game.

RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 5.5. Came close once or twice but was clearly ID’d as the danger man in this gmae and PSV often doubled him throughout his time ont he field.

SUBS

SAMUEL MBANGULA – 6. Placed himself perfectly in order to stab the rebound from Conceição’s cross. Was a little off besides and acknowledged as much after the game, but a winner is a winner.

FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 6. This would’ve been lower had he not made the move that led to the winning goal, because he looked listless and sometimes uninterested for much of his shift.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5. Just kinda there after coming on. Didn’t do anything special.

KHEPHREN THURAM – 5.5. Made a bit more of a defensive contribution than Koopmeiners but was likewise unable to create much in the way of attacking punch.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC – NR. Worked his tail off for 13 mintues plus, and the crowd acknowledged him for it.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

I’m a little stumped about how Thiago Motta is handling the double pivot in midfield right now.

The evidence of the season has been quite clear: at the moment, the best double pivot on this team is Manuel Locatelli and Khephren Thuram. And yet, Thuram hasn’t started since the Benfica game on Jan. 29.

Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images

The pivot has been a bit of a game of musical chairs lately, and to an extent I can understand why. Between trying to find a magic bullet for Koopmeiners in terms of position and finally trying to get Douglas Luiz on his feet, getting people time in the pivot has been a bit of a crush lately. But this week—perhaps the biggest of the year so far — isn’t exactly the kind of week to continue to experiment. Perhaps Motta saw a matchup he liked today with Luiz in the pivot. Perhaps he wants to give Thuram a little bit of rest — and given how the team’s depth issues have been until recently this is an option. But in games this big Juventus are going to need their best on the field, and the Locatelli/Thuram axis is very much the best that Juve has to offer in the engine room right now. Between the Derby and the second leg, seeing that combo back on the field will engender some more confidence.

Also engendering confidence would be a reappearance for Andrea Cambiaso, because Lloyd Kelly so far is making me about as confident in things at left back as Jonas Rouhi has. Weah, surprisingly, showed some adaptation on the right, and it might not be a bad idea to keep Nicolò Savona on the left until Cambiaso returns so that the left doesn’t feel quite so vulnerable.

LOOKING AHEAD

The return is on Wednesday in Eindhoven. Juve will move on if they avoid defeat.

Before that, though, it’s time for part two of the Derby d’Italia on Sunday.