Juventus can’t put Cagliari away, but this time suffer for the victory

Of the multiple things about Juventus’ season that have driven fans crazy, perhaps the singular most infuriating problem has been the team’s inability to put inferior teams away after taking an early lead.

The Bianconeri have had an unfortunate reflex to drop back into their own half after gaining an advantage, instead of stepping on their opponents’ throat and killing off the game early. Even in games where they do keep their foot on the gas, they haven’t managed to get that finishing goal. That has allowed teams that really don’t have any business getting a result against Juve to hang around until they can equalize. It’s the biggest reason why Juve have dropped a whopping 17 points from winning positions this year.

Cagliari was one such team. Back in October, Juve had broken through against the Isolani on a Dusan Vlahovic penalty 15 minutes into the match. Over the ensuing 75 minutes, they outshot Cagliari 16-8 and put six shots on target, but couldn’t score again, allowing the visitors — who had not put a shot on target since the sixth minute — to stay around until Douglas Luiz gave away a boneheaded penalty with two minutes left in the game, allowing them to steal a 1-1 draw.

Juve knew a win in the return in Sardinia would be huge for them. The rest of the top eight teams in Serie A had already played by that point, and only two of them — Atalanta and Inter — had won. Bringing three points back home to Turin would see them push past Lazio for sole possession of fourth place, put serious distance between themselves and the chasing pack behind them, and even pull them only eight points behind Inter for the league lead (barf).

Vlahovic — making his first start of the calendar year due to the combination of injury and the existence of Randal Kolo Muani — again scored early, this time pouncing on an error in the back, and Juve should’ve been two or even three goals to the good by halftime, only to be denied by a combination of poor finishing and excellent goalkeeping. As the second half wore on, Cagliari piled on the pressure, looking to again disappoint the Bianconeri.

But this time, the Old Lady bent, but didn’t break. Cagliari created some chaos in Juve’s defensive area, but they didn’t even manage a shot on target over the last 25 minutes of the game — indeed, despite holding nearly 60 percent of the possession in that time, Juve actually outshot them 4-3.

When the final whistle sounded, the 1-0 victory — their second in a row by that score and fourth straight in the league overall — hauled Juve into the Champions League places, and put them in position to perhaps even make a move on the teams immediately above them in the coming weeks so as to consolidate their position in the top four.

Thiago Motta continued to suffer through the team’s injury issues on defense. Pierre Kalulu was joined on the bench by Renato Veiga and Nicolò Savona, both injured against PSV on Wednesday, while Arkadiusz Milik continued to wander the wilderness of his knee injury. That left the manager in a familiar situation: possessed of only two healthy center-backs for his 4-2-3-1. Michele Di Gregorio started in goal, with Timothy Weah, Federico Gatti, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso protecting him. Manuel Locatelli and Teun Koopmeiners started in the double pivot, while Francisco Conceição, Weston McKennie, and Kenan Yildiz supported Vlahovic up front.

Davide Nicola settled his charges into a 4-5-1. Elia Caprile anchored things, behind the back four of Gabriele Zappa, Yerry Mina, Sebastiano Luperto, and Tommaso Augello. Nadir Zortea and Mattia Felici started wide in midfield, bracketing Antoine Makoumbou, Michel Adopo, and Alessandro Deiola. Roberto Piccoli tipped the spear.

For the first few seconds of the game it looked like Cagliari would come out of the gates hot, but Juve reigned in their attempt at a quick start and quickly earned a succession of corners. Cagliari repelled those initial attempts, but in the 12th minute made a complete mess of a back pass between Adopo and Mina. Vlahovic pounced as the Colombian let the ball run past him, stole the ball, rounded Caprile, and rolled the ball into the net past a sliding Mina’s last-ditch attempt to clean up after his own mistake.

Juve didn’t let Cagliari rest after the goal. As the half went on, the home team could barely keep the ball for more than a few seconds before Juve were back in possession and once again advancing on their goal, and the pressure was getting to some of their defenders. Ten minutes after the opener four of them somehow contrived to give Yildiz the room to take down a long ball from Di Gregorio and dash into the box, but Caprile got his trailing leg onto the young Turk’s shot back against the grain. The Cagliari keeper was called into actions moments later when Conceição pounced on a loose defensive touch by Luperto and tried to stuff the ball into the near post.

The assault continued in a myriad of different ways. Just before the half-hour mark Vlahovic, Yildiz, and Conceição broke out on a textbook counterattack, but Yildiz’s shot took the barest of deflections before meeting another kick save from Caprile. Conceição had the next big chance and should’ve simply slotted the ball in from point-blank range, but he completely whiffed at the delivery by McKennie. Di Gregorio finally touched the ball with his hands a minute later when Zortea fired the ball right at him from outside the box.

Cagliari were in need of a spark, and Nicola went looking for it in the person of Zito Luvumbo, who made his first appearance since the middle of December due to injury. The winger immediately made an impact and forced Weah into a professional foul within four minutes of the restart.

Juve’s passing was noticeably slower and less precise as the second half, and Nicola tried to jump on that by adding in more attacking power in Florinel Coman at the expense of Deiola in midfield. Motta responded by getting Douglas Luiz back onto the field after an injury absence and sending Kolo Muani on to play on the right wing alongside Vlahovic.

Luvumbo was becoming a serious problem on the attacking left, especially with Weah having to guard against picking up a second yellow. It was a welcome surprise when Nicola gave Motta a tactical gift and shifted him to the other side with 20 minutes to go. That said, Juve were still getting pushed back further and further, and they weren’t at all helped when Cambiaso dropped to the ground after feeling a pull in his adductor. With no one else there to call on, Motta was forced to send on Jonas Rouhi — who hadn’t played since the first week of December for a reason.

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Even with the young Swede in the fold, the Bianconeri back line just barely kept itself together. With 12 minutes left in the game they really should have been able to put the game away after Vlahovic got behind on a ball over the top from Douglas Luiz. The striker again squared up 1-on-1 with the keeper, but just as he let his shot go he received a shove in the back from Luperto. It put him off enough for Caprile to make yet another save. It was a clear foul, but for some reason VAR official Daniele Chiffi, who did initiate a check on the incident, failed to call Andrea Colombo to the pitchside monitor and let Luperto off the hook.

Cagliari continued to push, but still failed to test Di Gregorio between the sticks. Coman had a narrow miss from the left channel, and Nicola went all out for the last five minutes by sending the venerable Leonardo Pavoletti to add a final bit of firepower. All hands were at the pumps, and even Kolo Muani tracked back to make a critical tackle in the last few minutes.

Colombo added five minutes of stoppage time, and quickly piled on another when he judged Juve to be wasting too much time. But over the added time it was actually Juve who took a last measure of control. Yildiz was again denied by Caprile after being teed up by Kolo Muani, then the Frenchman rolled a cross in for Vlahovic, who was only denied a tap-in by a last-ditch tackle from Zappa. Samuel Mbangula drew one last stop out of Caprile in the dying seconds, and when Colombo finally blew his whistle, it brought the curtain down on a huge victory for a Juventus team that has needed the boost of succeeding in a big situation.

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6. Had little to do in terms of shot stopping, but did well keeping the defense together and controlling his box.

TIMOTHY WEAH – 6. Pushed forward and made himself a real danger on the right side in the first half, but had to reign things in after his quick yellow in the second. Had there been more heathy defenders he really ought to have come off to protect him.

FEDERICO GATTI – 8. Made a whopping 10 clearances, almost all of them went fully to safety and forced Cagliari to work to reset their attack. Completed 97.5 percent of his passes, and even came really close to sealing the game late when he took a whack in the 95th minute that didn’t miss the top corner by much at all.

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LLOYD KELLY – 6. After some shaky outings to start his Juventus tenure, he was far more solid this time around. Made six clearances and a tackle while completing 95.2 percent of his passes out of the back.

ANDREA CAMBIASO – 6. Second on the team with three tackles and caused Cagliari problems by tucking inside and acting essentially as an extra midfielder. Hopefully his injury isn’t bad.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – 6. Attempted 106 passes in only 72 minutes of work, including 72 completions in the first half alone. Completed 10 of 15 long balls, and kept the team ticking throughout the dominant first half.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 6. Did some things better Sunday compared to midweek, and tied for the team lead with two key passes, but he still isn’t showing his full self.

FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 5. Was not his usual dangerous self. Didn’t create a single shot, and completely whiffed late in the first half when he was set up for what looked like an easy score.

WESTON McKENNIE – 6. Worked hard and was a key part of Juve’s first-half dominance, constantly pressuring opponents off the ball to quickly regain possession. That showed in his tackle and interception numbers (two each).

KENAN YILDIZ – 6. Hit the target with all three of his shots, but should have buried at least one of them, especially his earlier ones in the first half. He did lead the team with four tackles, which given the way the season has gone isn’t a surprise at all.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC – 7. Jumped Mina to create the game’s loan goal, and was constantly dropping deeper to help distribute the ball in the attacking third, which is something we haven’t seen much from him. Has he been using his time on the sidelines to absorb some things in training?

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

SUBS

DOUGLAS LUIZ – 6. Made a couple of good passes before he had to leave the field with what’s being described as an ankle injury.

RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 6. Looked comfortable supporting Vlahovic from outside, and could’ve had a pair of assists late on. Also made an impressive defensive effort as Juve were defending deep.

KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5.5. Kept things relatively tight but didn’t have much opportunity to be offensive as Juve retreated.

JONAS ROUHI – 5. Didn’t make some of the more flagrant errors we’ve seen in his game, although he did make a false move or two that could’ve been dangerous. Lost it a little too much.

SAMUEL MBANGULA – NR. Created a few dangerous moments in stoppage time but couldn’t hit his shot well enough to put a dagger in things.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

The first half is exactly the kind of thing Motta wants in his team. Cagliari had no room to breathe, and if the finishing had been a little better Juve would’ve won this game at a canter. While the second half was certainly more hair-raising, it’s also probably to be expected given how many players had put in a significant shift over 120 minutes on Wednesday.

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

I’d been anticipating seeing Vlahovic in the starting XI in this game, both due to Kolo Muani’s workload over the last few weeks and Vlahovic’s incredible numbers against the Sardinian side — he’s scored nine goals in 12 games against them now. It was the right choice, and it was also interesting to see Motta give the two men an extended run in the lineup together. It was only the second time they’d played together on the field, and they worked quite well. Kolo Muani seems willing and comfortable working to provide for other players, although he and Vlahovic did look like they were on different pages a few times. Some time together in training and on the field could produce a very interesting combination indeed.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m still wondering where Alberto Costa is. With the back line reaching crisis levels, having a player who plays a position that’s been hammered by the injury issues chained to the bench seems odd. That was especially true against Cagliari, with Weah hampered by his early-second half yellow card. It is fair to point out that Motta was forced into two of his subs due to injury, so it’s possible that he might’ve been under consideration before Cambiaso and Luiz got hurt. One wonders if he gets his first chance in the Coppa in midweek, but with the defense in the state it’s in he’s going to have to come out of shelter sooner rather than later.

LOOKING AHEAD

Juventus head back home for the first of three straight home games, starting on Wednesday with the Coppa Italia quarterfinal. Their opponent will be Empoli, who just got absolutely crushed 5-0 by Atalanta on Sunday. Then Hellas Verona come to town, before back-to-back major clashes at home against La Dea and then away against Fiorentina.