The summer of 2025 was the strangest since COVID marked 2020.
Fortunately, the cause this time was not a world-altering pandemic scything people down in the thousands, but a strange summer tournament that split the offseason into two distinct parts. That altered the club’s preparation and transfer window, leaving the path into the 2025-26 season a strange one.
That being said, Juve had performed well in two of their three preseason friendlies, and as competitive matches kicked off at the Allianz Stadium
on Sunday night, there was a palpable excitement to see the team play, and hopefully begin to replace the bitter of the 2024-25 season.
Their opponents, Parma, were, coincidentally, their opening opponent the last time the Bianconeri started a run of success with a former player at the helm. Whether or not this season will see a similar outcome is to be seen, but the result was the same: victory.
After a tough first half that saw the Crusaders clam up in a low block and deny space to Juve’s key attackers, the home side ratcheted up the pressure after a scare in the second, ultimately breaking through on a corner just before the hour mark. They nearly gave their opponents a lifeline seven minutes from time when Andrea Cambiaso foolishly got himself set off, but rather than collapse they immediately roared onto a counterattack and doubled their lead to seal the 2-0 victory and start the Serie A season with all three points.
Igor Tudor began the season with a relatively full roster, although Juan Cabal was continuing his rehab from last season’s ACL injury and Nicolò Savona was still shaking off the ankle sprain he suffered in the Club World Cup. Also sidelined were Mattia Perin, Fabio Miretti, and (shocked face!!!!) Arkadiusz Milik. Tudor deployed his standard 3-4-2-1 formation, anchored by Michele Di Gregorio in goal. In defense, Federico Gatti and Lloyd Kelly flanked Gleison Bremer, who was making his much-celebrated return after his own ACL injury, which had altered Juve’s season last October. Pierre Kalulu was an unconventional choice to pair with Cambiaso in the wing-back spots, while the usual top pair of Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram patrolled the midfield. Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz played behind the debuting Jonathan David in attack.
Parma was led by Carlos Cuesta, a former Juventus and Arsenal assistant who, at 30 years old, was the youngest first-team manager in Europe. His was far from a first-choice starting XI. Their big summer signing, Matija Frigan, had blown out his knee in his first training session as a Parma player, and Jacob Ondrejka was also out with a long-term injury. Hernani and Nicolas Trabucci were also injured, while Botond Balogh and Abdoulaye Ndiaye were serving suspensions carried over from last season. Japan international Zion Suzuki started behind an identical 3-4-2-1 formation. Lautaro Valenti, Alessandro Circati, and Enrico Delprato served in the back three, while Mathias Løvik and Emanuele Valeri played wing-back. Mandela Keita and Adrían Bernabé played in the double pivot, behind Christian Ordóñez, Pontus Almqvist, and Mateo Pellegrino.
Both teams probed early. Thuram had a weak header gobbled up by Suzuki in the third minute, and sixty seconds later Cambiaso got in the way of a tightly angled shot by Løvik after Pellegrino flicked on a long throw.
As the teams settled in, Juve began to ratchet up the pressure. Parma dropped deep into a defensive shell, and their defenders were quick to get to some nice-looking passes that would otherwise have caused some problems. But overall Parma’s defending was effective, limiting the space David and Yildiz had to operate and forcing a lot of lateral ball movement. It forced Juve into some wild, long shots by the likes of Bremer.
The pressure eventually caused the game’s first real chance in the 13th minute when Thuram lofted a ball through the middle of the box to meet a great run by Conceição. The compact winger stooped over and headed the ball into the ground, getting it ever so close to bouncing it over the hand of Suzuki, who instead was just able to palm it over the bar.
David turned a pass by Locatelli just wide of the post with his first shot in a Juve shirt, then showed that chemistry was still a work in progress when he went after a cross from Conceição at the same time as Yildiz, who had a much better angle before his teammate deflected it away.
As the half went on, Juve kept up their possession and pressure, but failed to give Suzuki any true challenges. Any shots were right at him, as Parma continued to clog the attacking third and limit the chances. The final moments saw a couple of near misses, the first off a free kick when Bremer failed to steer a far-post delivery on target, and then in stoppage time when David failed to get a good touch on a fizzing cross from Kalulu.
The visitors nearly landed an almighty sucker punch less than two minutes after the restart, when a lightning counterattack saw Almqvist get behind Gatti and lay it off for Pellegrino. It would’ve been a certain goal had it not been for Bremer, who looked exactly like his old self as he made a sliding tackle to clear the shot away from the line.
After that scare, things returned to the rhythm of the first half. This time, though, Juve were going about things a little differently. They seemed to work out some spacing issues in their attack, and more importantly, they stopped moving the ball laterally as much and started pushing more vertically within the attacking third. That started poking open some holes in the near-catenaccio tactics of the visitors.
Just a few minutes after Bremer’s block, a blocked Thuram shot bounced back to Gatti, who decided to go for a shot and shaped it just over the top corner. Three minutes later Yildiz took a quick cut inside and got hit a powerful low strike that skittered just past the far post. Conceição came even closer a few minutes later when his shot deflected off of Keita and whacked flush off the outside of the post.
It finally felt as though a goal was becoming inevitable. Tudor inserted Teun Koopmeiners and Joao Mario to help it along, replacing Locatelli and Gatti, the latter of whom was playing under a yellow card. Two minutes later David had a ball fall right too him off a deflection from Kelly, but he scuffed it badly, though it still forced Valenti to clear it out behind, nearly putting the ball into his own net in the process.
The ensuing corner was taken short and quickly returned to Yildiz, who easily jinked his way past Keita and to the byline. He fired a cross into the middle for David, who lost Circati and flipped the ball off the side of his foot and past a diving Suzuki to open his account for his new team.
Normally going behind would draw a team out of its defensive shell, but Parma surprisingly stayed back. That invited long-distance efforts from the like of Yildiz and Thuram, both of whom put their shots straight at Suzuki. Every once in a while the visitors were able to slip a ball down the right side and into a dangerous crossing position, but there were never any attackers in position to properly attack the deliveries.
By the 73rd minute, Juve had outshot their opponents 20-2 and looked to be on their way to three points. With 11 minutes left David cushioned a layoff beautifully into the path of Yildiz, who ripped a ferocious half-volley that Suzuki somehow parried around the post at full stretch.
Then came a blow that looked like it was going to change the match. Just as Parma looked as though they were about to open up and try to push for an equalizer, Cambiaso lost his head and lashed out at Løvik after the two went up for a high pass. At first it looked like simple frustration over the challenge, but if you go back and look, Cambiaso had been about to boil over for several minutes. He lashed out at the young wing-back and caught him in the face, prompting referee Matteo Marcenaro — who, it has to be said, did not have a particularly good match — to immediately brandish a red card, giving the Crusaders a man advantage as they pursued their equalizer.
Except they never had the chance to. Within seconds of Cambiaso’s brain fart, Juve hit a lightning counter to finish the game.
It was started by Joao Mario, who emerged with the ball after the Parma free kick and started to run it out. He spotted Dusan Vlahovic, who had been inserted into the game in David’s place four minutes earlier, and squeezed a pass between a pair of defenders to find him near midfield. Vlahovic hit the ball first-time into space for Yildiz to run onto, and the young Turk charged downfield. He charged into the box and released a square pass back to the onrushing Vlahovic a split second before Bernabé arrived. The Spaniard got the barest of touches to it, but the ball still set up perfectly for Vlahvoic, who stroked it past a stranded Suzuki to seal the game.
Parma tried valiantly to make a run at things, and forced Di Gregorio into his only save of the match in the 88th minute—a flying effort to deny a long-range strike from Bernabé—but the second goal completely took the wind out of their sails, and the game ran itself out, giving Juve another opening day win.
LE PAGELLE
MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 7. His only save was spectacular, and throughout the rest of the game he controlled his box perfectly and didn’t make any mistakes in distribution.
FEDERICO GATTI – 6. Didn’t have much in the way of counting stats and had to curtail his usual aggression after an early booking. Still looked a bit out of sorts with his leg, but with one exception was able to keep things in his orbit quiet, and he didn’t misplace a pass all night.
BREMER – 7.5. Made a game-high eight clearances and prevented what would’ve been a serious game-changer when he stopped Pellegrino’s shot early in the second half. His presence is such a huge boost to this team.
LLOYD KELLY – 6. A shockingly competent game from the Englishman. The only danger in his area came when he was left out to dry by others (we’ll get to that). He also pushed up to join the attack as Juve turned the screws on Parma.
PIERRE KALULU – 6. A surprising choice at right wing-back, which is a position that clearly doesn’t fit his game. That doesn’t mean he was bad—he made a couple of interesting runs into the box and should’ve had an assist right before halftime had David made more of his cross. But he doesn’t really have the pace for a wing-back. It may be that Tudor wanted him on the field in case Bremer or Gatti needed to come off so they wouldn’t be replaced with someone cold off the bench. He did play well once he dropped into the back three.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 6. One of those games where Locatelli quietly puts together a highly efficient game. He had a 94.8 completion rate, and made three key passes in only 56 minutes of work.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 6.5. Continued to be the box-to-box force we’ve come to know last season. He carried the ball through midfield well, co-led the team with four aerial wins and led the team with six shots. He was just as effective defensively, racking up three tackles, two interceptions and two clearances.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5. We’ll get the big one out of the way first: the red card was unbelievably stupid. It looked as though Cambiaso had been simmering fit to boil over a few minutes before then, and doing what he did was simply foolish. He’ll be lucky to only miss one game. As for the 82 minutes before that, there was good and bad. He made three tackles and three key passes, but also let a few too many balls get behind him for Parma to flash into the box from the attacking right. Luckily Parma never capitalized. When he does come back, that needs to be minimized.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 6.5. Was lively throughout the day, constantly in Parma’s face on the press and taking on defenders trying to work an opening. He made three key passes and was unlucky not to open the scoring on the shot that was deflected onto the woodwork. He’s adapted to this attacking midfield role far better than I expected him to.
KENAN YILDIZ – 8. Didn’t have a lot of space to operate in the first half. At times last year that would’ve gotten him down, but he stayed with it and in the second half was a force. Both of his assists were excellent passes, and he came close to scoring himself on two different occasions. He put in effort on the other end as well, racking up two clearances and two tackles.
JONATHAN DAVID – 6.5. Started out lackluster, perhaps a combination of Parma denying him space and perhaps some nerves in his first competitive game with his new club. But his passing in and around the box brings an element to this attack that hasn’t been had in a long time, as evidenced by his game-high five key passes. When he finally did get his goal he took it perfectly. David is going to make Juve’s attack far more multiple.
SUBS
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5.5. Didn’t do anything bad but didn’t add much to the midfield either.
JOAO MARIO – 6. Drew a couple of important fouls to relieve pressure on the defense and was excellent starting the counterattack that led to the goal that put things away.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC – NR. Only had five touches in his 11 minutes, but two of them came in the counter that led to his goal, which was excellent. Is that the last time we’ll see him score a goal for Juve? Maybe, but if he doesn’t leave in this transfer window, he’s at least showing that he’s got something left to say on the field.
NICO GONZÁLEZ – NR. Had a glancing header go wide just after coming on but nothing much besides that, although he did draw a couple of fouls defensively in the late going.
WESTON McKENNIE – NR. On to help close out the last few minutes and give Yildiz a breather.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
Juve wasn’t able to do much with their possession in the attacking third in the first half, but in the second Igor Tudor adjusted two things that really changed how the offense worked. First, he worked out the spacing between Yildiz, Cambiaso, and Kelly on the left, which had worked against them in the first half by limiting the amount of room they had to work with in the attack. Second, and more importantly in my mind, was the introduction of a little more verticality in the attacking third.
Verticality is a hallmark of Tudor’s tactics. But it’s just as important to employ that concept close to the goal as it is to get the ball into the attacking third quickly. In the first half, Juve were often reduced to a rather Allegri-like side-to-side passing pattern that didn’t pull any of Parma’s well-disciplined players out of their spaces. In the second, they started attacking upfield, pushing forward on the dribble to draw defenders and pierce Parma’s defensive shell. The results were plain: whereas in the first half their possession was rather sedate, By the 10-minute mark of the second half you had a distinct feeling that a goal was coming. If they’re to be effective in front of goal—especially against teams that decide to park the bus and dare Juve to break them down, that trait is going to have to stick around.
But perhaps the thing that most struck me was Juve’s reaction to going down a man. In recent seasons, the mental strength of this team was such that when adversity hit, they were often unable to respond in a meaningful way. One setback could shut them down for the rest of the day. Clinging to a one-goal lead when Cambiaso received his marching orders, the Bianconeri didn’t mope but instead immediately hit Parma with a textbook counter, making the extra man almost a moot point with so little time left.
That’s the kind of response we’re used to seeing from a Juventus team, and if Tudor can start to bring that back, it will see Juve gain a good deal more full results, especially against smaller sides.
LOOKING AHEAD
Next week Juve head to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris for a visit to Genoa before the September international break brings the new season to a screeching halt. After the break, it’s Juve’s first big test of the season: a home date with Inter.
