A week ago, Juventus entered a difficult stadium to play in and everything went wrong. They never gave themselves a chance to score a point or three against the defending champions (vomit) who were probably at their most vulnerable.
It will be crucial not to do the same thing against Bologna at the Renato Dallara Stadium on Sunday. The Blaugrana are direct competitors in the European division, just two points ahead of sixth-placed Juventus. A win would move them up at least one place and possibly two places in the table, depending on Monday night’s game between Roma and Como, putting them back in contention for the top four.
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Perhaps their most important test so far this season, they passed.
They didn’t get good results. This game was a strange one, with both teams battling it out on the field, only to end up losing. The two teams actually shot a total of 24 times, but only 7 hit the target. Several of those goals were saved brilliantly by Michele Di Gregorio, and a solitary shot headed into the Bologna goal in the 64th minute, three minutes after substitute Juan Cabal came on.
Juve were resilient enough to keep Vincenzo Italiano’s Bologna at bay throughout the evening, partly due to Bremer’s strong return and partly because Torbjörn Hegem was sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity shortly after Juve took the lead. The 1-0 win was just what Juventus needed – to provide impetus for another important game next week and keep them top of the table as they try to recover from a shaky start.
The Bianconeri have drawn five consecutive games at the Dallara Stadium. Luciano Spalletti misses Dusan Vlahovic, Federico Gatti, Arkadiusz Milik and Carlo Pinsoglio through injury, but has enough options in his 3-4-2-1 formation. DiGregorio started in goal behind Pierre Kalulu, Lloyd Kelly and Ten Kupmenas. Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiasso serve as full-backs, with Manuel Locatelli and Hefren Thuram in midfield. Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz support Jonathan David in attack.
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The biggest missing piece for the Italian is starting goalkeeper Lukas Skorupski, while Remo Fruler, Niccolò Casale and Martin Vitik are also on the treatment table. Federico Ravaglia took over the gloves from Skorupski in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Nadir Zoltea, Jon Lukumi, Hegem and Juan Miranda form the defense, while Nicolo Moro and Tommaso Pobega form the midfield centerpiece. Former Juve starlet Riccardo Orsolini supports Thaïs Dalinga in attack alongside Lewis Ferguson and Niccolò Cambiagi.
Things started quickly. Conceicao had a shot blocked within seconds of kick-off and Di Gregorio was forced to make two saves from a free-kick in the fifth minute. Frankly, his first parry of Pobega’s shot went straight into the unmarked Orsolini at the back post, but he recovered immediately, got in front of the follow-up player, and saved Orsolini’s shot with his shoulder.
Juventus had some success finding David and Yildiz behind the defence, but the forwards were never able to occupy those positions and shoot. The final pass is slightly off target, or the defender recovers in time to divert the attacker away from the goal. Bologna tried to throw some long passes to Daringa, but Kelly beat him in the air multiple times and kept him in the pocket nearly the entire game. Another near-perfect chance came just after the half-hour mark when Yildiz once again got behind the defense but was unable to pass the ball to David. Cambiasso cleared the ball back into the penalty area after McKennie’s excellent run, but the American’s header went wide.
With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, Juventus thought they had taken the lead. Lavaglia ventured out to meet David’s header, but McKennie got the better of him. With the goal wide open, McKennie passed the ball back to David, who easily rolled the ball into the goal, only to turn around and see the flag go up in the distance. When David took the shot, the assistant coach correctly spotted McKennie’s length offside.
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The final scare of the first half came when Zoltea drove down the channel to meet Orsolini’s pass, but with a little help from Di Gregorio’s fingertips, his shot hit the crossbar.
There wasn’t much action in goal at the start of the second half and Spalletti made his first changes around the hour mark, bringing on Cabal and Luis Openda for David and Cambiasso. In less than three minutes, the Colombian gave Juventus the lead. Openda passed the ball to Yildiz for a thunderous shot, but it was blocked by Hegem. Then the corner was taken and Yildiz passed the perfect cross to Kabal, who avoided Zoltea’s attention and headed the ball into the net unmarked.
The Italian immediately went to the bench, hoping to spark a spark by sending on Castro for the completely ineffective Dalinga, but everything changed soon after. Openda found himself in trouble again, taking advantage of poor defending from Hegem, who allowed Di Gregorio’s long ball to bounce up, giving the Belgian the space he needed to make a run. Hegem had no chance of matching his pace and brought him down at the top of the penalty arc, prompting referee Davide Massa to issue an immediate red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity.
Juve fans were given another reason to cheer when Grayson Bremer appeared on the touchline with 15 minutes left in regulation time. He came on for Kupmeiners, occupying his usual position in the middle of the back three. Minutes later, Lukumi had his hands firmly on Conceição’s face, luckily avoiding a penalty, before grabbing the diminutive winger like a sack of flour and trying to pull him to his feet. Either move should have been considered by VAR, but neither was and the Italians conveniently removed Lukumi just minutes later, replacing him with an old friend, Federico Bernardeschi.
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The last 10 minutes are a clinic to watch the game end. Openda was unlucky not to score in the first minute of stoppage time, with Lavalria reacting brilliantly to save his first shot from 12 yards, but Bologna never came close to equalizing, limited to a few long-range shots from Bernardeschi, which did not trouble Di Gregorio. Massa blew his whistle for the final time after five minutes of stoppage time as Juventus claimed their biggest domestic win to date under Luciano Spalletti.