Over the last month Juventus have, for once, had the favor of the football gods. The teams they\u2019ve been competing with for Serie A\u2019s final Champions League spot have hemorrhaged points in recent weeks, allowing a Juventus team that a month ago looked like they were all but beaten to head into the final four games of the season in control of their own destiny.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The gods continued to smile on the Bianconeri this weekend. Como and Napoli drew on Saturday, and AC Milan\u2019s shocking loss to Sassuolo (ANCORA BERARDI!)<\/em> had given them an opening to match them in third place. All they had to do was beat a Hellas Verona team that had been mathematically relegated two days earlier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But this time, Juve couldn\u2019t take advantage of the chance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That phrase is true both in the macrocosm of the league race and the microcosm of the match itself. Juventus completely dominated, controlling nearly 80 percent of the possession and outshooting their opponents 29-7. Alas, only seven of those shots found the target, and only onev\u2014va fantastic free kick by Dusan Vlahovic \u2014 managed to get past a brilliant Lorenzo Montip\u00f2. By the time Vlahovic did score, Montip\u00f2 had been protecting a lead for the better part of 30 minutes, having scored after a calamitous mistake by Gleison Bremer gifted them the opener. Juve pushed and pushed for the goal that would give them the three points that would push their lead out to four points. But it wasn\u2019t to be \u2014 in large part thanks to some insane saves by Montip\u00f2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And so Juventus could only manage a 1-1 draw against a team that only has three more games of top-flight football left in its immediate future. Como remained three points behind, and Roma, who play Fiorentina on Monday, were presented the chance to pull within one should they win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Luciano Spalletti was missing only Arkadiusz Milik and Juan Cabal, and Kenan Yildiz was deemed fit to start after two straight matches coming off the bench in the midst of his nagging knee inflammation. He sent out a 3-4-2-1 formation, anchored in goal by Michele Di Gregorio. Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Lloyd Kelly played in front of him, with Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso serving as wing-backs. Manuel Locatelli and Kh\u00e9phren Thuram stood in midfield, while Francisco Concei\u00e7\u00e3o and Yildiz supported Jonathan David in attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Paolo Sammarco\u2019s team was simply looking to go out with some pride. He had far more pieces missing than his opposite number did. Armel Bella-Kotchap, Cheikh Niassi, Daniel Oyegoke, Suat Serdar, and Daniel Mosquera were all ruled out by injuries, while Nicolas Valentini served a suspension and Gift Orban was dropped after a physical altercation with a fan was caught on camera two weeks ago. Sammarco deployed a 3-5-1-1. Montip\u00f2 was between the sticks, with Victor Nelsson, Martin Frese, and Andrias Edmundsson playing in the back three. Rafik Belghali and Domagoj Bradaric were on the wings, flanking the midfield of Antoine Bernede, Roberto Gagliardini, and Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro. Tom\u00e1s Suslov roamed behind Kieron Bowie up front.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Juve seized the initiative with alacrity. Within seven minutes they had put a ball on target, albeit a relatively weak header from Kelly that Montip\u00f2 didn\u2019t have trouble with. A training ground piece on a free kick saw Locatelli\u2019s long shot bend wide, then Concei\u00e7\u00e3o was denied by a smart save when he slammed a defensive clearance low and to the near post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The 26th minute saw Juve recycle a corner and loft the ball back into the box, where Bremer deftly flicked a header that got over Montip\u00f2\u2019s hand but didn\u2019t dip enough and bounced off the crossbar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You\u2019ll notice that there hasn\u2019t been much mention of Verona possessing the ball. That\u2019s because they weren\u2019t\u2014and they hadn\u2019t taken a shot until the 34th minute, when Bremer made a catastrophic error. The Brazilian had easily taken down a cross by Bradaric off his chest and was relatively unpressured when he tried to pass the ball out wide to Kalulu. The idea for the pass wasn\u2019t bad. The execution was horrific. He left the pass a good yard short, and Bradaric pounced, quickly centering the ball to Bowie. The Scot didn\u2019t connect with the ball particularly well, and Di Gregorio absolutely should have saved the ball. But he was already cheating to the far post and was caught completely off-guard when Bowie went for the near, leaving him only able to flail a leg at the ball as it rolled into the goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Juve looked to respond quickly, but Thuram\u2019s header off a good cross from McKennie was blocked by Nelsson. The Mastini registered three more blocks before the half was out, and went into the locker rooms incredibly unlikely halftime leaders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spalletti took immediate action coming out of the tunnel. Thuram was replaced by Vlahovic, changing the formation to a 4-2-3-1 and moving David into a No. 10 role behind the Serb. They dominated the game once again, but were reduced to probing the Verona defense for the first 15 minutes of the half. The turning point came on the hour when Concei\u00e7\u00e3o was fouled by Bernede. The team had struggled all year from direct free kicks, but the return of Vlahovic brought back their biggest threat from dead balls, and Vlahovic reminded everyone how skilled he was by ripping the ball around the wall and past the near post of Montip\u00f2, who had cheated a step the other way and couldn\u2019t recover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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