The summer of 2025 was the strangest since COVID marked 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Fortunately, the cause this time was not a world-altering pandemic scything people down in the thousands, but a strange summer tournament that split the offseason into two distinct parts. That altered the club\u2019s preparation and transfer window, leaving the path into the 2025-26 season a strange one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That being said, Juve had performed well in two of their three preseason friendlies, and as competitive matches kicked off at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday night, there was a palpable excitement to see the team play, and hopefully begin to replace the bitter of the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Their opponents, Parma, were, coincidentally, their opening opponent the last time the Bianconeri started a run of success with a former player at the helm. Whether or not this season will see a similar outcome is to be seen, but the result was the same: victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After a tough first half that saw the Crusaders clam up in a low block and deny space to Juve\u2019s key attackers, the home side ratcheted up the pressure after a scare in the second, ultimately breaking through on a corner just before the hour mark. They nearly gave their opponents a lifeline seven minutes from time when Andrea Cambiaso foolishly got himself set off, but rather than collapse they immediately roared onto a counterattack and doubled their lead to seal the 2-0 victory and start the Serie A season with all three points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Igor Tudor began the season with a relatively full roster, although Juan Cabal was continuing his rehab from last season\u2019s ACL injury and Nicol\u00f2 Savona was still shaking off the ankle sprain he suffered in the Club World Cup. Also sidelined were Mattia Perin, Fabio Miretti, and (shocked face!!!!)<\/em> Arkadiusz Milik. Tudor deployed his standard 3-4-2-1 formation, anchored by Michele Di Gregorio in goal. In defense, Federico Gatti and Lloyd Kelly flanked Gleison Bremer, who was making his much-celebrated return after his own ACL injury, which had altered Juve\u2019s season last October. Pierre Kalulu was an unconventional choice to pair with Cambiaso in the wing-back spots, while the usual top pair of Manuel Locatelli and Kh\u00e9phren Thuram patrolled the midfield. Francisco Concei\u00e7\u00e3o and Kenan Yildiz played behind the debuting Jonathan David in attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Parma was led by Carlos Cuesta, a former Juventus and Arsenal assistant who, at 30 years old, was the youngest first-team manager in Europe. His was far from a first-choice starting XI. Their big summer signing, Matija Frigan, had blown out his knee in his first training session as a Parma player, and Jacob Ondrejka was also out with a long-term injury. Hernani and Nicolas Trabucci were also injured, while Botond Balogh and Abdoulaye Ndiaye were serving suspensions carried over from last season. Japan international Zion Suzuki started behind an identical 3-4-2-1 formation. Lautaro Valenti, Alessandro Circati, and Enrico Delprato served in the back three, while Mathias L\u00f8vik and Emanuele Valeri played wing-back. Mandela Keita and Adr\u00edan Bernab\u00e9 played in the double pivot, behind Christian Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez, Pontus Almqvist, and Mateo Pellegrino.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Both teams probed early. Thuram had a weak header gobbled up by Suzuki in the third minute, and sixty seconds later Cambiaso got in the way of a tightly angled shot by L\u00f8vik after Pellegrino flicked on a long throw.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As the teams settled in, Juve began to ratchet up the pressure. Parma dropped deep into a defensive shell, and their defenders were quick to get to some nice-looking passes that would otherwise have caused some problems. But overall Parma\u2019s defending was effective, limiting the space David and Yildiz had to operate and forcing a lot of lateral ball movement. It forced Juve into some wild, long shots by the likes of Bremer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The pressure eventually caused the game\u2019s first real chance in the 13th minute when Thuram lofted a ball through the middle of the box to meet a great run by Concei\u00e7\u00e3o. The compact winger stooped over and headed the ball into the ground, getting it ever so close to bouncing it over the hand of Suzuki, who instead was just able to palm it over the bar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Juventus FC via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n David turned a pass by Locatelli just wide of the post with his first shot in a Juve shirt, then showed that chemistry was still a work in progress when he went after a cross from Concei\u00e7\u00e3o at the same time as Yildiz, who had a much better angle before his teammate deflected it away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As the half went on, Juve kept up their possession and pressure, but failed to give Suzuki any true challenges. Any shots were right at him, as Parma continued to clog the attacking third and limit the chances. The final moments saw a couple of near misses, the first off a free kick when Bremer failed to steer a far-post delivery on target, and then in stoppage time when David failed to get a good touch on a fizzing cross from Kalulu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The visitors nearly landed an almighty sucker punch less than two minutes after the restart, when a lightning counterattack saw Almqvist get behind Gatti and lay it off for Pellegrino. It would\u2019ve been a certain goal had it not been for Bremer, who looked exactly like his old self as he made a sliding tackle to clear the shot away from the line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After that scare, things returned to the rhythm of the first half. This time, though, Juve were going about things a little differently. They seemed to work out some spacing issues in their attack, and more importantly, they stopped moving the ball laterally as much and started pushing more vertically within the attacking third. That started poking open some holes in the near-catenaccio tactics of the visitors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Just a few minutes after Bremer\u2019s block, a blocked Thuram shot bounced back to Gatti, who decided to go for a shot and shaped it just over the top corner. Three minutes later Yildiz took a quick cut inside and got hit a powerful low strike that skittered just past the far post. Concei\u00e7\u00e3o came even closer a few minutes later when his shot deflected off of Keita and whacked flush off the outside of the post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It finally felt as though a goal was becoming inevitable. Tudor inserted Teun Koopmeiners and Joao Mario to help it along, replacing Locatelli and Gatti, the latter of whom was playing under a yellow card. Two minutes later David had a ball fall right too him off a deflection from Kelly, but he scuffed it badly, though it still forced Valenti to clear it out behind, nearly putting the ball into his own net in the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ensuing corner was taken short and quickly returned to Yildiz, who easily jinked his way past Keita and to the byline. He fired a cross into the middle for David, who lost Circati and flipped the ball off the side of his foot and past a diving Suzuki to open his account for his new team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Juventus FC via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Normally going behind would draw a team out of its defensive shell, but Parma surprisingly stayed back. That invited long-distance efforts from the like of Yildiz and Thuram, both of whom put their shots straight at Suzuki. Every once in a while the visitors were able to slip a ball down the right side and into a dangerous crossing position, but there were never any attackers in position to properly attack the deliveries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By the 73rd minute, Juve had outshot their opponents 20-2 and looked to be on their way to three points. With 11 minutes left David cushioned a layoff beautifully into the path of Yildiz, who ripped a ferocious half-volley that Suzuki somehow parried around the post at full stretch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Then came a blow that looked like it was going to change the match. Just as Parma looked as though they were about to open up and try to push for an equalizer, Cambiaso lost his head and lashed out at L\u00f8vik after the two went up for a high pass. At first it looked like simple frustration over the challenge, but if you go back and look, Cambiaso had been about to boil over for several minutes. He lashed out at the young wing-back and caught him in the face, prompting referee \u200b\u200bMatteo Marcenaro \u2014 who, it has to be said, did not have a particularly good match \u2014 to immediately brandish a red card, giving the Crusaders a man advantage as they pursued their equalizer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Except they never had the chance to. Within seconds of Cambiaso\u2019s brain fart, Juve hit a lightning counter to finish the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was started by Joao Mario, who emerged with the ball after the Parma free kick and started to run it out. He spotted Dusan Vlahovic, who had been inserted into the game in David\u2019s place four minutes earlier, and squeezed a pass between a pair of defenders to find him near midfield. Vlahovic hit the ball first-time into space for Yildiz to run onto, and the young Turk charged downfield. He charged into the box and released a square pass back to the onrushing Vlahovic a split second before Bernab\u00e9 arrived. The Spaniard got the barest of touches to it, but the ball still set up perfectly for Vlahvoic, who stroked it past a stranded Suzuki to seal the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Parma tried valiantly to make a run at things, and forced Di Gregorio into his only save of the match in the 88th minute\u2014a flying effort to deny a long-range strike from Bernab\u00e9\u2014but the second goal completely took the wind out of their sails, and the game ran itself out, giving Juve another opening day win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 7.<\/strong> His only save was spectacular, and throughout the rest of the game he controlled his box perfectly and didn\u2019t make any mistakes in distribution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n FEDERICO GATTI – 6.<\/strong> Didn\u2019t have much in the way of counting stats and had to curtail his usual aggression after an early booking. Still looked a bit out of sorts with his leg, but with one exception was able to keep things in his orbit quiet, and he didn\u2019t misplace a pass all night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/platform.blackwhitereadallover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/08\/gettyimages-2231150019.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0.012500000000003,0,99.975,100\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n