Juventus\u2019 job was clear. Win their final two games, both of which would see them enter as favorites, and they would be guaranteed Champions League football next season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On Sunday afternoon, against a Fiorentina team that was in the relegation spots for much of the season and hadn\u2019t won a game in a month, they spat the bit hard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Fiorentina controlled much of the first half, and with just over 10 minutes left in the period Juve conceded a goal on their opponents\u2019 first shot on target for the 16th time in Serie A this season. Left chasing the game, Juve poured 26 shots at the Viola\u2019s goal, but couldn\u2019t climb back into the game. Two goals were disallowed, one for a foul and one for offside, before their fate was sealed by a late screamer by former Juve academy product Rolando Mandragora.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The 2-0 loss dropped Juve from third to sixth, and from in control of their own destiny to needing multiple results to go their way in order to scratch themselves back into the top four.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Luciano Spalletti was forced to play with a slightly altered lineup with Kh\u00e9phren Thuram only fit for the bench. Michele Di Gregorio started at the base of a 4-2-3-1, with Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso screening him. Teun Koopmeiners stood in for Thuram, joining Manuel Locatelli in the double pivot. Francisco Concei\u00e7\u00e3o, Weston McKennie, and Kenan Yildiz backed up Dusan Vlahovic up front.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Paolo Vanoli was missing Moise Kean as well as Tariq Lampety. His 4-3-3 was anchored by David De Gea, with Dod\u00f4, Marin Pongracic, Luca Ranieri, and Robin Gosens lined up in defense. Marco Brescianini, Nicol\u00f2 Fagioli, and Cher Ndour took up station in midfield, while Fabiano Parisi and Manor Solomon flanked Roberto Piccoli in the attacking trident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For a must-win game, Juventus started out rather flat. Fiorentina took advantage of some ragged and sloppy play to take control of the early phases. Locatelli took the first shot on target of the game in the 15th minute, but Fiorentina were still first to most balls, and Juve weren\u2019t able to pull together any sustained attacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Juve\u2019s first real chance came in the 20th minute when Ndour made a suicidal back pass that Vlahovic rushed in to intercept. De Gea had also come rushing off his line, and he was able to make a sliding one-on-one save. Ten minutes later the visitors suffered a blow when Parisi had to be stretchered off the field after a collision, being replaced by Jack Harrison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was only a few minutes later that Fiorentina opened the scoring. The English substitute started the move, sending Solomon through the middle of the field. He retreated a step or two before making an excellent pass to Ndour, who was making a run at the far side and had left Koopmeiners in the dust. Ndour\u2019s shot took a small deflection, but it was still a shot that Di Gregorio had no business letting through. Instead it looked like he was caught in two minds whether to try to save it with his foot or his hand, and it squeezed past him and into the net to bring a stunned silence over the Allianz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Juve looked for a quick response and finally started taking the game to their opponents, but Locatelli fired wide before Yildiz drifted inside and drilled a shot for the far post that De Gea met with a flying parry. Di Gregorio had to made a save of his own in stoppage time when Harrison wriggled free. The boos started as the whistle blew for halftime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spalletti didn\u2019t waste any time in making changes, and he sent J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Boga into the game before the second-half kickoff. He made an almost immediate impact, barreling downfield on the counter within minutes only for his shot to be Blocked behind by Pongracic. Later on the Ivorian volleyed the rebound of a blocked shot at goal, but De Gea got his hands up to tip it over the bar. Concei\u00e7\u00e3o had a hard shot kick-saved at the near post, and it looked like Juve were finally piling on the pressure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n They thought they had the equalizer just after the half-hour when Boga lifted the ball to the far post for McKennie to head home, but referee Davide Massa immediately blew his whistle, wiping off the goal for the barest of forearm pushes in the back of Gosens. It was a very<\/em> light touch that Gosens made the most of, but it was deemed enough by Massa to make the call.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It took another 10 minutes before Juve had the ball in the net again, this time through Vlahovic, who coolly slotted home the rebound after a shot by Zhegrova was blocked, but VAR Daniele Chiffi soon brought Massa to the video monitor for an on-field review, where he quickly ascertained that Vlahovic had been offside, and the touch by Pongracic was a deflection as opposed to a deliberate touch. There was a somewhat funny moment as Massa was coming back to the field when Ranieri, who had just been subbed off, was shown a red card for something he must\u2019ve said to the arbiter as he passed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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