Juventus give away the first half of Coppa quarterfinal and fall to Empoli on penalties

After Juventus’ elimination from the Champions League last week, the Coppa Italia was the most plausible route to silverware for Juventus this season. With their path to the final far easier than any of the other top teams left in the competition, the holders had to be considered favorites in the competition.

Were it that someone had told them that before the took the field against Empoli on Wednesday.

It took Juve more than half the game to realize that they were among the favorites to defend their title playing against a team that was making only its fourth appearance in the quarterfinals in their history, hadn’t won a match since early December, was in the thick of the relegation fight, and was coming off a humiliating 5-0 drubbing on their home field by Atalanta. They held almost 70 percent of the possession during that half, but did jack squat with it. It took 52 minutes for them to finally put a shot on target, while Empoli burst out in front with a goal from a long shot halfway through the first half.

Eventually managing to respond and tie the score with 25 minutes left, the Bianconeri weren’t able to push through a winning goal despite sustained pressure on Empoli’s goal, and paid for it in the shootout when two of their biggest star names missed penalties in flaccid fashion, ushering them out of the competition 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Juve manager Thiago Motta — stop me if you’ve heard this one before — was facing a serious selection crunch in defense. Pierre Kalulu, Renato Veiga, and Nicolò Savona were all out injured, as was Douglas Luiz, while Arkadiusz Milik’s long walk in the wilderness continued. Motta rolled out his usual 4-2-3-1 setup. Mattia Perin was given the starting assignment in the Coppa as was usual, with Timothy Weah, Federico Gatti, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso arrayed in defense. Teun Koopmeiners and Khéphren Thuram played in the midfield pivot. Motta’s tactical curveball on the day was in attack, where Randal Kolo Muani and Dusan Vlahovic played together from the start for the first time. Kolo Muani played on the right wing, joining Weston McKennie and Nico González behind Vlahovic on the point.

Empoli’s Roberto D’Aversa was also dealing with a serious injury crisis that forced him to play three teenagers in his starting lineup. Tino Anjorin, Jacopo Fazzini, Mattia Viti, Ola Solbakken, Nicolas Haas, Tyronne Ebuehi, Saba Sazonov and Pietro Pellegri were all unavailable, while Ardian Ismajli pushed through an injury in the starting XI. D’Aversa’s 3-5-2 was anchored by Devis Vásquez, protected by Luca Marianucci, Ismajli, and Lorenzo Tosto. Junior Sambia and Liberato Cacace were at wing-back, bracketing Youssef Maleh, Jacopo Bacci, and Liam Henderson started in midfield. Lornezo Colombo and Ismael Konate made up the strike pair.

We got an indicator of just how Juve’s day was going to go less than two minutes in, when Kelly lofted a ball over the top and Kolo Muani headed it perfectly into the path of González. Vásquez came off his line but he’s still in no-man’s land when González reached the ball. It should have been a simple matter to tap it into the open net, but the Argentine somehow contrived to balloon the ball into the stands. It was the harbinger of a horrific night for the winger.

Juve dominated possession as the game moved forward, but did nothing with it. The next shot either side took came after 20 minutes, when Konate blasted well wide. But four minutes after that, Empoli were very suddenly out in front.

Things started going downhill after an awful pass by González, whose attempt to return a ball from Cambiaso went a good seven or eight yards in front of him into no-man’s land. Bacci ran onto it and pushed it to Malleh. The midfielder — who had been sent off when Juve came from behind to beat Empoli 4-1 a few weeks ago — easily moved away from the attentions of Thuram, and no one else closed him down as he loaded up from 22 yards and hit a thunderbolt with his weaker foot across the grain and past the desperate dive of Perin.

In the next 20 minutes, Juve looked absolutely flaccid. Their possession created nothing, while Empoli came close to doubling or either tripling their lead. The first came five minutes from the break when the Tuscans broke downfield after Vlahovic stepped on the ball trying to dribble, leading to a (thankfully) tame shot by Konate. The 18-year-old striker was far more dangerous in stoppage time, when the entire back line switched off and allowed him to latch on to a long kick from Vásquez one-on-one with Perin, beating him relatively easily but clanking his shot off the inside of the post with the last kick of the first half.

Things didn’t look like they were improving early in the second. Perin had to parry an awkward skipping shot around the bar seconds after the restart. Motta hadn’t made any changes over the break despite multiple players looking deeply undeserving of remaining on the pitch. Vlahovic finally forced Vásquez into action with a good-looking free kick that was met with a flying save, before heading the ensuing corner over.

Substitutions were finally made shortly thereafter, and Juve started pushing a little bit harder as the clock ticked away. A couple of tantalizing crosses only just missed their target before Thuram made up for his malaise on Empoli’s goal with a fantastic solo effort to equalize, taking a simple pass from Kolo Muani and executing an exquisite back-heel flick to wrong-foot Henderson before stuffing the ball in under Vásquez’s arm at the near post. Henderson made a feeble effort to trick the officials into calling a foul for a strike to his face while Thuram was making his turn, but referee Francesco Forneau saw through it easily.

Juve immediately started pushing for a winner. Kolo Muani, who had moved to the left on the introduction of Francisco Conceição, constantly abused halftime sub Saba Goglichidze, and put in a good cross in the 70th minute that set up Vlahovic, only to see Marianucci block his first-time tap.

Juve continued to push for a winner, with both Vlahovic and Kenan Yildiz slicing shots wide from promising positions. Five minutes from time the big Serb had an incredible chance to put the game to bed when he received a beautiful through ball from Thuram, but managed to skew it wide with Vásquez at his mercy. Yildiz missed with one of the last kicks of stoppage time when he latched on to a cleared corner kick and blazed a shot just over the top corner. Forneau called a halt to proceedings, and Juventus’ first penalty shootout in the Allianz Stadium was on.

The Bianconeri were up first and sent Vlahovic to the spot — only to see him blaze over the bar. Empoli nailed their first two kicks, then Cacace managed to get a ball through Perin’s hand on the third, a shot that maybe should have been kept out. Yildiz then stepped up and hit an incredibly tame shot to his right that Vásquez — who had guessed correctly on Juve’s two makes before that — easily parried away. Marianucci stepped up for Empoli’s fourth and easily sent Perin the wrong way to seal Empoli’s first-ever trip to the semifinals, and Juve to the locker room to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images

LE PAGELLE

MATTIA PERIN – 6. Kept Juve in it with a couple saves sandwiched around halftime, but I keep on looking at that third penalty wondering if he should’ve managed to get it out.

TIMOTHY WEAH – 5.5. Made three tackles, but didn’t manage to contribute too much going forward.

FEDERICO GATTI – 6. Completed 95 percent of his passes and was generally solid defensively, not letting much in his remit get through.

LLOYD KELLY – 5. Made four clearances, but was far too disengaged when Maleh was setting up for his shot. Getting pulled for a midfielder out of position isn’t a good look.

ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5.5. Seemed a little bit timid, perhaps protecting the minor knock he took over the weekend.

KHÉPHREN THURAM – 6.5. Let Maleh get past him far too easily on Empoli’s goal, but made up for it with that absolutely exquisite turn for the equalizer. He led the team with 109 touches and 93 pass attempts, including the setup for what really should’ve been the winner in the 85th minute.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5. The numbers — two key passes, 96% passing — belie just how dead he looked on the day. He’s cutting a really demoralized figure right now, and he probably needs to be dropped for a few games.

RANDAL KOLO MUANI – 6. Tallied four key passes, including the assist for the equalizer, and buried his penalty in the shootout. But he also lost possession 19 times — a rate that isn’t really sustainable in a big game like this.

Photo by Filippo Alfero – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images

WESTON McKENNIE – 5.5. Made a pair of key passes but also lost the ball 10 times and didn’t really make himself a consistent threat.

NICO GONZÁLEZ – 3.5. Yeah, we’re in waters that are not oft sailed in terms of how low Nico’s number goes. He was simply awful in all phases of the game. Couldn’t put away a relatively simple early opportunity that would’ve totally altered proceedings, and made a terrible pass in a giveaway for the first goal. The fact that he was on the field and not in a pinnie when the second half kicked off was stunning.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC – 4. Gave a lot of effort, but man his execution was bad. Had one opportunity that he could’ve turned into an easy 1-v-1 had his first touch been a little more gentle, and the miss he had in the 85th minute was a goal that a striker of his caliber should hit the target with in his sleep. Then the shootout miss — goodness gracious, man.

SUBS

KENAN YILDIZ – 4.5. Made a pair of key passes, but couldn’t put any of his shots on target, and his penalty miss was tame.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – 5.5. Completed 44 of 47 passes, had a key pass, and was five of six on long balls, but he got exposed a bit in the back as Juve pushed up for the equalizer.

FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 5.5. Had a pair of shots blocked and earned a few fouls in dangerous spots, but has still been lacking a lot of production from open play in his last few games.

ALBERTO COSTA – NR. Finally saw some action after arriving six weeks ago, intercepting a pass but not having enough time to do much in the way of attacking input.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

Thiago Motta got a lot wrong in this game, both from the start and in progress.

First off, it’s time to put Koopmeiners on ice for a few games. I know that’s more difficult at the moment with Douglas Luiz seemingly incapable of staying fit under Italian training. But he’s clearly demoralized right now, and when you put that next to the fact that the early portion of the season indicated that the best combo in the pivot is Thuram and Locatelli, it’s questionable as to why that pair has been split up.

Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images

As the game went on, Motta’s decisions still failed to impress. Why Koopmeiners and González weren’t hauled off at halftime is beyond comprehension given their travails in the first 45 minutes. The fact that González remained on the field for 60 minutes was even more boggling. Motta slammed his players for their effort and attitude in this game — very much his purview, as he acknowledged — yet left two of the players with the worst combo of attitude and performance on the field far longer than any sane viewer realized was necessary.

Even toward the end of the game Motta’s decisions can be questioned. Putting in Costa was fine — especially considering the need to protect Cambiaso’s health at the moment — but leaving a substitution hanging in the wind with the game heading toward penalties was, in my opinion, his final strategic blunder. Specifically, he should’ve replaced Perin. I know that the Coppa is his arena, but his record stopping penalties over the course of his career — even understanding how difficult it is — is straight lousy. Michele Di Gregorio’s career percentage is very close, but he’s faced far fewer over the course of his career and has developed a reputation as a better stopper, something that I genuinely believe should be taken into account in shootouts (see: Krul, Tim).

It’s a real shame, because going into the game on paper the thing that should’ve been the talking point was the union of Vlahovic and Kolo Muani from the start for the first time. That experiment, frankly is something that I think ought to continue. The two of them looked to have the beginnings of some chemistry with each other. There were times when they were moving together with the ball that one failed to anticipate the other, but it looked less like two guys who weren’t suited to playing with each other and more like two guys who just need to get their chemistry fully ramped up. Vlahovic hasn’t had that kind of running mate at Juve since Paulo Dybala, and the potential of these two playing together needs to be explored more to see if a similar relationship can develop by the end of the year.

LOOKING AHEAD

Juve will have a chance to reset themselves on Monday with a home game against Hellas Verona, then face two road games with big implications for the race for the top four, first at Atalanta and then Fiorentina.