Soccer is a game of momentum. The ebb and flow of the game as one team and then the other seizes the initiative is the essence of the sport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But on the pitch, momentum doesn\u2019t follow the laws of physics. Countless times in history the team that is on the wrong side of the momentum can suddenly smash through it. Sometimes they snatch it for themselves, sometimes it\u2019s a momentary stop, like a river going around a rock, and then they fight like hell to survive against it all for the rest of the match.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Thursday night\u2019s Coppa Italia quarterfinal between Juventus and Atalanta was one of those games where the momentum was just wonky. The 3-0 scoreline doesn\u2019t really tell the story of how this game went. By the middle of the first half, Juventus were the team that was playing better, and could\u2019ve been up by multiple goals when an odd VAR call against Gleison Bremer provided a massive record scratch. The resulting penalty gave Atalanta the lead, but for the bigger part of the game Juve were still the team that had the wind behind them, even if they weren\u2019t playing particularly fantastic football.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But the flow of the game again took an abrupt change 13 minutes from time. Atalanta turned a turnover in midfield a quick-hit second that all but ended things, before slamming the gate shut with five minutes left to go off another turnover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was a game that Juve had the advantage in for long stretches, yet somehow ended up on the wrong end of a scoreline that makes it look like they were blown off the New Balance Arena\u2019s turf.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This game is weird sometimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Luciano Spalletti made only two changes to the team that smacked Parma around over the weekend. One was forced, as Kenan Yildiz was not fully fit and Dusan Vlahovic was also out, but January signings J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Boga and Emil Holm both made the squad. The Coppa, as always, being the No. 2\u2019s domain, meaning Mattia Perin started in goal behind the 4-2-3-1. The absence of Yildiz, meanwhile, saw an interesting switch further up. The back four was made up of Pierre Kalulu, Federico Gatti, Bremer, and Lloyd Kelly at left-back. Manuel Locatelli and Kh\u00e9phren Thuram were the double pivot, while Francisco Concei\u00e7\u00e3o and Weston McKennie were joined by Andrea Cambiaso up front to support Jonathan David.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Raffaele Palladino, who took over Atalanta roughly the same time Spalletti took over Juve, ran out a 3-4-2-1 that was heavy on regulars. Marco Carnesecchi started behind the back three of Giorgio Scalvini, Berat Djimsiti, and 17-year-old phenom Honest Ahanor. Davide Zappacosta and Lorenzo Bernasconi played the wing-back spots, with \u00c9derson and Maarten De Roon in midfield. Charles De Ketelaere and Giacomo Raspadori backed up Gianluca Scamacca up front.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Juve almost blew up any sort of game plan either manager had within nine seconds when Thuram found a channel through the middle of Atalanta\u2019s defense and Concei\u00e7\u00e3o met him with a lob, but Thuram couldn\u2019t get good contact at full stretch and skewed the ball wide. Before the first minute had gone by Thuram tried to return the favor and send Concei\u00e7\u00e3o through the same hole, but overhit his pass for Carnsecchi to collect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For the next 15 minutes or so Atalanta was generally in control of possession, although they did little with it except pass the ball around laterally and try a long shot or two at Perin\u2019s goal. Juve started to push themselves back into the ascendency after Concei\u00e7\u00e3o got down the right side and sent in a cross that presented David with a free header, but he was a fraction late and could only skim it off his forehead wide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Portuguese winger was in the thick of things in the 20th minute, when either of two huge opportunities should\u2019ve resulted in goals. First, McKennie tried that crease in the middle again, this time with a long throw. Concei\u00e7\u00e3o muscled Ahanor off the ball but Carnesecchi, who had been well off his line at the start of the sequence, stayed where he was and then broke for Concei\u00e7\u00e3o at the last moment to bat his shot away. Less than 30 seconds later the ball came back again, and Kalulu found the compact winger in the box, where he cut in on Bernasconi and fired a laser that beat Carnesecchi but clanked off the top of the crossbar and behind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Everything seemed like it was still moving in Juve\u2019s direction when referee Michael Fabbri held up play in the 24th minute after Concei\u00e7\u00e3o seemingly had earned a corner. Out of nowhere, a VAR check was being made, and Rosario Abisso soon called Fabbri to the monitor to check an incident that had happened almost two minutes before, when \u00c9derson\u2019s weak cross from the left was caught with ease by Perin. But the replay showed that the ball had glanced off Bremer\u2019s hand, which was raised in a slightly unnatural position. It was a contentious call \u2014 Atalanta\u2019s players seemed not to even notice it in real time \u2014 but one that almost always gets called in Italy, and indeed Fabbri came back and announced a penalty for Atalanta. Scamacca stepped up and dispatched it easily, firing in to the right with Perin going the other way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bremer had a chance to atone for his misfortune less than two minutes after the goal, and really should have put Cambiaso\u2019s cross at least on frame, but thumped his header wide. In the 33rd minute Cambiaso tried to be sneaky on a corner and hit a quick low pass to David in the box, who turned and fed McKennie. His shot, though, skewed wide, and Ahanor prevented it from falling at the feet of Gatti.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Atalanta came out of the locker rooms after the half looking to extend their lead, but Juve quickly regained the initiative, although they weren\u2019t able to do much with it. Cambiaso did put in a good cross that would\u2019ve given a teammate an easy header had Carnesecchi not clawed it away before it got there, but overall neither team was really producing much in front of the other\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That changed a bit when Boga was introduced in the 64th minute. The Ivorian, a former Atalanta player, hadn\u2019t played a competitive game in weeks after being given leave when Nice supporters attacked him and several teammates after a bad run of form in Ligue 1. He very nearly got an assist with his first touch, leading Concie\u00e7\u00e3o into the box, but Scalvini dove in to prevent him from shooting. A minute or so later, McKennie fired wild and high on the turn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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