Derby d’Italia win vaults Juventus into the top four

The results from the Serie A slate prior to Sunday’s match between Juventus and Inter had made the latest edition Derby d’Italia heavy with meaning. Saturday’s 2-2 draw between Napoli and Lazio had given both sides huge opportunities.

Had the Nerazzuri won, they would’ve taken over the league lead from the Partenopei. A win for Juve would vault them past Lazio on tiebreakers and into the top four for the first time in months, as well as distance themselves a bit from the trailing pack after Fiorentina’s surprising loss to Como in the lunchtime kickoff.

As the teams repaired to their locker rooms at halftime, it certainly looked like the defending champions (barf) were going to leapfrog the league leaders (barf). Inter were far and away the better team over the first 45 minutes, forcing Juve into a series of mistakes that they took advantage of to create some dangerous opportunities, in particular via Denzel Dumfries, who sliced through the attacking right continually to create chances for himself and for his teammates.

But the visitors didn’t make any of those chances count. Of the 13 shots they took in the first half, only two were on frame. Another hit the post, but some of their best chances—particularly one manufactured by Dumfries for Lautaro Martinez from point-blank range—were simply missed.

In some parallel reality, Inter went into the locker room up a goal or two — if not maybe more. But on good old Earth Prime, the game was scoreless. Juve took advantage of that luck coming out of the interval. Even in the first half, they had put more shots on target than their rivals, but in the second half they were the only team that looked dangerous. Five of their nine shots in the second period found the target, while Inter never tested the keeper again. Ultimately, it was Francisco Conceição and Randal Kolo Muani who proved the heroes, with the latter feeding the former for the game’s only goal after an outrageous bit of skill.

The 1-0 victory was Juve’s first in the Derby d’Italia since March of 2023, and extended their season-high winning streak in all competitions to four. For the first time since August, Juventus look like a team with actual momentum behind them — and just in time, too, with big games in Serie A, the Champions League, and the Coppa Italia in the offing over the next few weeks.

Thiago Motta had a new injury headache in the form of Douglas Luiz, who had picked up a muscle problem midweek, but did get Andrea Cambiaso back from his ankle problem, albeit only fit for the bench. Pierre Kalulu and Arkadiusz Millk were the other injury absences. Motta stayed with his 4-2-3-1 formation, with a couple of tweaks from the midweek win over PSV Eindhoven. Michele Di Gregorio started in goal, protected by the back line of Timothy Weah, Federico Gatti, Renato Veiga, and Nicolò Savona. Teun Koopmeiners started in the double pivot with Khephren Thuram, while Conceição joined Weston McKennie and Nico González in support of Kolo Muani.

Simone Inzaghi had a much fuller squad. The biggest issue was Marcus Thuram, who had come off with an ankle injury in their win over Fiorentina last week. Dumfries was back from suspension, while Federico Dimarco had only just shaken off a bout of the flu. Inzaghi’s trademark 3-5-2 came out again, with Jann Sommer at its base. Benjamin Pavard, Alessandro Bastoni, and Francesco Acerbi formed the defense. Dumfries and Dimarco manned the wing-back spots, while Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoglu, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan made up the midfield. Martinez had Mehdi Teremi as his strike partner.

Juve were actually the first team to threaten, when some sloppy passing in Inter’s back three let McKennie jump on a pass and send the ball to González, but he made a terrible first touch and had to rush his shot, which flew well over the bar.

From that point on, it was Juventus who made the mistakes. Inter’s press was perhaps not quite as ferocious as some others Juve had seen this season, but it was enough to make them rush and give the ball away while the defense was in positions ill-equipped to cover the short-field counters. Savona proved particularly vulnerable; Dumfries repeatedly smoked the young full-back to get into dangerous positions. But it was a mistake on the other side of the field that generated Inter’s first real opportunity to score.

A relatively cheap giveaway by Conceição triggered a run against a stretched Juve defense. Barella tried to cut inside and shoot from outside the box but slipped as he made contact. The scuffed shot attempt floated toward Taremi, who made an acrobatic attempt at an bicycle kick that was met by the gloves of Di Gregorio. Dimarco fielded the rebound and moved it quickly to Martinez, who curled a beautiful cross into the right channel but could only watch as Dumfries headed the ball over the top from four yards.

That wasn’t to say Juve were completely punchless. Sommer was forced into two saves with just over 20 minutes on the clock, first when Weah found González with a long diagonal switch that produced a parry from the Swiss international. McKennie kept the ball in play, and Barella’s attempt at a clearance went right to Conceição, who very nearly wrong-footed Sommer by going to the near post, but the keeper recovered and managed to palm the ball around the post a second time. Kolo Muani got up to reach the ensuing corner, but it was right at Sommer who again proved up to the task, this time catching the ball out of the air.

The two teams continued to find soft spots. Weah managed to clean up after a big mistake when he headed the ball right to Dimarco in the box by blocking the wing-back’s shot, and Kolo Muani nearly opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark but Pavard just got enough of it to deflect it over. Two minutes later a terrible giveaway deep in their own territory saw Dumfries set the ball up on a plate for Martinez from 10 yards with a return pass, but the Argentine somehow ballooned the ball over.

There was one more near-sting in the visitors’ tail with just two minutes left before the break. Once again Dumfries tormented poor Savona, beating him to a long ball from the keeper before keeping his run going to receive a headed through ball from Taremi and leaving the young full-back in the dust. Gatti couldn’t come across to close him down without leaving Martinez completely open, so Dumfries had a clear run into the box. Savona recovered and caught up with him at the last moment, coming in with a desperate sliding tackle that forced Dumfries a little bit further downfield. That sharpened his shooting angle just enough to make the difference, and the Dutchman whacked the ball off the post.

Juve were truly fortunate not to be trailing at the half, and when they came out of the locker room following the break it was clear that they realized that. Within minutes change between the two sides was palpable. Inzaghi was going ballistic on his charges before the clock ticked to 50 minutes, when Veiga hit a shot through a sea of bodies after a corner that was still tracked and held by Sommer.

The first half of the second period saw Juve trying to find the final pass. Conceição ruined a fantastic run by Thuram by playing a terrible one-two with Kolo Muani, while Gatti could only glance a header wide.

Both teams made changes around the hour mark. Motta sent on Cambiaso coming on for Savona, while Inzaghi made a triple change to try to shake things up at multiple levels of the formation.

Juve were still searching for the breakthrough, and had picked up a great chance in the 72th minute when Conceição put in a cross that Koopmeiners managed to head wide. Two minutes later, they finally reaped the reward of their second half labor.

It started with a beautiful ball by Cambiaso, whose cross was headed away from Koopmeiners at the last second, but only as far as Kolo Muani. The Frenchman evoked Zinedine Zidane with an incredible roulette in a tight space to get away from Mkhitaryan and Barella, then stabbed it to Conceição as Acerbi and Carlos Augusto converged on him. The Portuguese winger settled it quickly and hit a snap shot that snaked through the legs of a sliding Pavard and settled into the net at the far post. He charged toward his teammates warming up on the sidelines and was mobbed, while a wall of sound cascaded down from the stands as the near-capacity crowd celebrated along with him.

Two minutes later, it looked like the game might have been sealed, but Koopmeiners’ cross-goal shot was blocked off the line by Dumfries.

The final 15 minutes of the match saw Inter desperately trying to get themselves level to at least keep pace at the top, but Juve gave them very few sights at goal. The ones they did get came mostly from Marcus Thuram, who headed a cross from the left over with five minutes to go. Sommer made one last excellent save to keep Kolo Muani from icing the game as the clock ticked into stoppage time, and Thuram flicked the ball up to himself for a half-volley from close range that he deposited over the bar as well.

That was the game’s final action, and in another minute Juventus was given leave to celebrate a hard-fought victory over one of the league’s best teams (barf).

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6.5. Made a few good saves in the first half, as well as a fantastic one in the second that ended up not counting after the referee very belatedly whistled for a foul in the buildup.

TIMOTHY WEAH – 7. Was excellent on a day where he had to face off against a shifty opponent in Dimarco. He constantly pushed forward with the ball while still staying pretty solid defensively, making four tackles as well as a key pass. He’s getting more and more comfortable here by the game.

FEDERICO GATTI – 7. All over the place in the back against Inter — in the good way. His passing perhaps left a little to be desired, but he intercepted three passes and took the chance to use those to bomb forward in the second half.

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

RENATO VEIGA – 7. Just like his partner in the center of defense, he was a rock in the back. Another man who wasn’t afraid to take the ball forward in the second half. Made seven clearances and was constantly hyping up the crowd, who he seems to have forged a quick connection with.

NICOLÒ SAVONA – 5. Got absolutely roasted by Dumfries on multiple occasions. Once or twice he was able to recover and get back into the play — the slide tackle on Dumfries at the end of the first being one example — and it’s not unreasonable to say the team’s constant first-half turnovers were one of the reasons he was getting abused so. Did a tiny bit better in the second half, but it’s not a coincidence that the team’s fortunes picked up even more after Cambiaso entered. Learning experience for the good young full-back.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5.5. Desperately unlucky to not score, but that would’ve been heavy cosmetics on another otherwise lackluster performance. A point in the first half where he carried forward with multiple options in front of him only to pass the ball backwards fucks with this season of Koop.

KHEPHREN THURAM – 6. Must again wait until next time for a Thuram Brothers Derby after his brother’s injury, but played well in the middle of the park for his side. That included a few sundry expenses like for a toothbrush.

FRANCISCO CONCEIĆÃO – 6.5. Made a pair of key passes and put all three of his shots on target, including that delicious winner, but was also flagging enough that in the moments before the goal I was wondering whether he should be removed.

WESTON McKENNIE – 7. Finished with five key passes and also blocked a pair of shots and racked up four clearances.

NICO GONZÁLEZ – 6.5. Ran his tail off, making an effort to win every ball up his side of the field. Also made some big defensive contributions with four clearances.

RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 7. What a fantastic move before that assist. He had two key passes overall and had a pair of shots deflected just over the crossbar.

SUBS

ANDREA CAMBIASO – 6. Provided a breath of fresh air on the left flank, both solidifying things against Dumfries and being a far bigger attacking threat.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – NR. Could’ve come on a little earlier, but his presence settled things in midfield after Juve took the lead.

KENAN YILDIZ – NR. Had a shot blocked and added in a key pass in a 10-minute cameo.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happened coming out of the break to turn the game around. Koopmeiners was clearly playing a little bit further up the pitch, which helped him and perhaps kept Juve’s attacks a little further up the field. His subs were spot on this time around, albeit perhaps still a little late on the last two.

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

But the biggest impact is one we may not ever know. Whatever Motta said in the locker room at halftime resonated with the team and worked, because they never looked back after the break and looked a new team.

The idea that Motta has been losing the team doesn’t really stand up in the face of a game like this, where a coach’s actions at half, team talk and all, was a huge factor in a turnaround. There are things to build on for Motta over the last few weeks, but not he must follow through and continue this form — starting in the Champions League in just a few days when Juve head to the Netherlands.

LOOKING AHEAD

Juve play PSV Eindhoven in the second leg of their UCL playoff on Wednesday. They’ll need to avoid defeat in order to advance to the round of 16. After that comes a packed but easier fixture list, with games against Cagliari and Hellas Verona sandwiching a game against Empoli in the Coppa Italia.