Juventus knew they wouldn’t be able to jump back into fourth place no matter what happened during Monday’s lunchtime kickoff between Como and Udinese. But with what played out in Udine, Juventus’ opportunity to cut the gap between themselves and fourth-place Como was there for the taking.
And they did just that.
There were two very different kind of halves from Juventus on Monday evening, but thanks to about as dominant of an opening 45 minutes as anybody could have asked for with Gleison Bremer and
Weston McKennie scoring goals within the first 20 minutes, the Bianconeri were able to ride that two-goal lead to a 2-0 victory over Genoa at the Allianz Stadium. With that win and Como’s scoreless draw against Udinese a few hours earler, the gap between fourth place and fifth place is now down to a single point. And with Como the next team up to face Inter Milan on the Serie A schedule, there is a legit chance that Juventus could be in fourth by the time next weekend is over (or even as they’re heading back to Turin after the trip to Bergamo).
But we won’t get too far ahead of ourselves because we know that is where things can get dicey.
Hell, after such a big-time first-half performance from Luciano Spalletti’s squad, I don’t know if we were thinking that we might have to sweat out the final 15 or 20 minutes against a Genoa side that barely did anything in the opening 45 minutes.
Shoot, I don’t think anybody foresaw one of the second-half heroes that prevented Genoa from actually getting on the scoreboard being a much-maligned former starting goalkeeper who wasn’t in the starting lineup and hadn’t played since Juventus’ brutal loss to Como on Feb. 21 on this same field in Turin.
On that day, Michele Di Gregorio was adding to his list of costly errors. This time around, about six weeks later, he was making about as Gigi Buffon-like double save as you’ll see from a Juve keeper — let alone one who came on in a pinch because Mattia Perin picked up a calf injury late in the first half.
If Di Gregorio doesn’t make either of those two saves, then it’s about as nervy as a final 15 minutes as we’ll see. Heck, even with those saves it was still a nervy final 15 minutes from Juventus thanks to a second half that left a whole lot to be desired. It was the culmination of a second half in which Juve took their foot off the gas a little bit, were probably taxed from the high-tempo first-half performance they delivered on and the fact that Tommaso Baldanzi gave Genoa exactly the kind of spark that Daniele De Rossi was looking for.
Juventus could have been made to rue some of their missed chances — and especially so with somebody like McKennie who could very well have scored a hat trick with his two notable close-range shots that he didn’t convert. They could have put Genoa away for good with plenty of time to spare and made the final 30 minutes (or more) a total cruise to the finish line like you’re just driving with the top down on a beautiful Sunday with absolutely nothing else to do.
But, this is Juventus in 2026, and nothing comes easy or really follows the logic we’ve always known with this sport. That is why, up 2-0, their best defender is going on a tackle right on the edge of the box that ends up being a penalty after a lengthy VAR review. That is why, after not playing for six weeks because his manager replaced him as the start in goal, Di Gregorio suddenly is thrust into the spotlight and becomes a hero with a massive double save that keeps the clean sheet intact.
This was a classic game that should have been a 3-0, 4-0 or even more kind of victory for Juventus. Instead, the actuality was a nervy second half where you probably thought “2-0 is the most dangerous lead in football” once or twice, if not more. Juventus, as is well-established, did a whole lot right in the first half only to, in a way, be their own worst enemy after the break that kept Genoa hanging away in some shape or form.
In the end, though, they got the three points.
That is what matters the most — especially these days when they’re trying to make up ground on a Como side that looked so dang good going into the international break.
We said it around the same point in the schedule last season when this exact same situation regarding Champions League qualification was playing out — we don’t care how they win, as long as they win.
Considering the vast differences in both halves — and Spalletti essentially said after the game that it wouldn’t have been possible for Juve to keep things up after what they did in the opening 45 minutes — it would have made total sense for this team to cough the lead up and leave us wondering if the chances for Champions League next season were basically gone. But, they won — and that is the thing they need to do as much as possible over these final eight weeks of the 2025-26 season.
One down, seven more (hopefully) to go.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- A 2-0 lead? Within 20 minutes? In this economy?
- Seriously, though, a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes is something that is more than welcomed around these parts and that is the way you would like to see Juventus start just about every one of their remaining games this season.
- The second half, though? Not so much!
- The passing sequence that led to McKennie’s goal to make it 2-0 was just beautiful. Andrea Cambiaso and Kenan Yildiz did well to combine in a tight space and get out of pressure. Cambiaso was incredibly smart with his switch of the field to fully kick things into gear. McKennie’s run to find himself wide open in the box was great. Same goes for Francisco Conceição’s cutback to spot McKennie. And the finish to cap it all off. Just a great team goal all the way around.
- The finishing on McKennie’s other two chances in the box? Not as nice.
- Also not a surprise that McKennie comes alive again and is an absolute force when Jonathan David is back in the starting lineup. Those two guys just play off each other really, really well.
- McKennie being suspended due to yellow card accumulation for the weekend trip to Bergamo is less than ideal. No ot a fan of it — nope, not one bit.
- David was surely a surprise to many when it comes to him being a starting lineup choice. But he played a solid game after a productive international break with Canada. That shot he had that hammered off the post was impressive if only because the guy had absolutely no momentum behind him and looked to be basically flat-footed as he got the ball off.
- Also lost in the shuffle of everything that happened on Monday: With Inter absolutely smoking Roma, Juventus now have a little bit of breathing room between themselves and the team directly behind them.
- Shot count in the first half: Juventus 10, Genoa 2.
- Shot count in the second half: Genoa 10, Juventus 6.
- Is it time to heap some praise on Di Gregorio? Yeah, I think it is. Let’s do it …
- For him to come off the bench and basically just have the halftime interval to try and lock in mentally only to go on and make that double save, it’s pretty remarkable. And that is even before you think about how tough these past six weeks must have been after he lost his starting job to Perin, a move that Spalletti first said was more of a mental health break before it became a more more permanent thing. Maybe he got a little bit of a sarcastic cheer on his first save of the day when the shot was right at him. But on that double save? Just brilliant. That is the kind of stuff that made me really have high hopes for him when he first signed with Juventus.
- Plus, the dude has gotten his fair share of online abuse from folks following his mistakes. Redemption, at least for one game, looked really good on him — and you could tell he was feeling it, too.
- Finally, Di Gregorio just seems like a genuinely good dude regardless of his Inter past. It’s always good to see good things happen to good people.
- It’s a shame that Bremer was looking like peak Bremer before that penalty he gave away. Shame, shame.
- Pierre Kalulu is good. Very, very good.
- I also like the part of Kalulu’s game in which he channels his inner Danilo and makes a huge 1-on-1 tackle only to look completely nonchalant about it right after it happens.
- Four Juventus players got yellow cards in this game. It felt like so many more than that.
- Yildiz had almost as many key passes by himself as Genoa had as a team. And yet this felt like a somewhat quiet outing for Kenan on the whole. Boy is good.
- Having to wait until a Monday for Juventus’ first game after an international break? That’s cruel.
- Good win. For the most part, at least. Onward.
