With Juventus chasing after fourth place as the Serie A season reaches the home stretch, they couldn’t afford too many slip-ups against teams that they should be beating.
Unfortunately for the Bianconeri, their footing got a little less sure in the second half of Saturday night’s match against Sassuolo.
Juve dominated the first half and went ahead early after a lightning counterattack, but (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) couldn’t make that dominance pay with more goals. With the door open,
Sassuolo took advantage of some awful defending early in the second half to even the score.
Juve couldn’t conjure as many chances as they had in the first half, but were given a huge out in the last 10 minutes when Jay Idzes was assessed by VAR to have handled the ball in the box. But Manuel Locatelli, whose penalty 10 months ago had confirmed Juve’s top-four status last season, bottled this attempt, condemning Juve to a 1-1 draw and leaving them at the mercy of relegation-threatened Pisa to keep pace with Como.
Luicano Spalletti continued to play the strikerless system that had given him the success of the last game-and-a-half. Emil Holm was the only player still missing through injury. Mattia Perin anchored the 4-1-4-1 setup, protected by Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso. Locatelli sat in front of the defense, while Khéphren Thuram passed a late fitness test to join Weston McKennie in a more advanced midfield role, while Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz played on the wings with Jérémie Boga as the false nine.
Former Juve player and primavera manager Fabio Grosso was in charge of Sassuolo, and he had a bit of a selection pickle on his hands. Sassuolo had seen an outbreak of whooping cough run through the locker room (get your Tdap, folks!), felling Nemanja Matic, Kristian Thorstvedt, Woyo Coulibaly, and Stefano Turati. Fali Candé, Alieu Fadera, Daniel Boloca, and Edoardo Pierangolo were out injured as well. Arijanet Muric started behind Grosso’s 4-4-2. Sebastian Walukiewicz, Idzes, Tarik Muharemovic, and Ulisses Garcia made up the back four. Domenico Berardi and Darryl Bakola flanked midfielders Aster Vranckx and Ismaël Koné. Cristian Volpato and Andrea Pinamonti played up front in the strike pair.
Juve started out of the gates early, getting a corner off a strong run by Conceição and seeing Locatelli’s free header from the penalty spot pushed wide by Muric. The Portuguese got a shot of his own off in the eighth minute after McKennie cushioned a Yildiz cross into his path, but he couldn’t get it through the bodies in the middle of the box.
The early pressure didn’t produce as much danger as the Bianconeri would like, but it was a lightning fast counter in the 14th minute that put them in front. After claiming a cross in the middle of the box, Perin spotted Conceição streaking down the right and found him in stride with a long punt. Conceição barreled downfield and looked up to find Yildiz making a perfect run to get free at the top of the box. He laid it across and the young Turk slammed a venomous first-time shot that skittered across the grass and beat Muric at the near post.
Conceição nearly had another one in seconds when he was fed in on the run by Boga, but he once again had his shot blocked. Thuram was denied by Muric after an excellent turn and powerful run that put a lot of questions about his ankle to bed, then he rejected another effort by Yildiz, this one a shot that was bounced into the ground in a manner reminiscent of some of a young Paul Pogba’s strikes back in his first stint with the team.
Sassuolo’s first real danger came off a corner when a Berardi corner kick bounced through the box to an unmarked Pinamonti, whose header flashed just over the bar.
Juve controlled the game throughout the half, but as it went on found the chances fewer and farther between. McKennie forced his way through a double team at the top of the box and tried to lead Boga into a shooting position, but overhit his pass and allowed Muric to claim. With five minutes to go, Conceição made a great move in the box to find Kalulu, but his shot for the far post bent wide, and the Portuguese winger again caused havoc in the box in stoppage time, very nearly getting free in the channel to stroke home only to once again have his shot blocked.
Cocneição continued his strong performance early in the second half, nabbing the ball off an opponent in midfield to start a counter. But Sassuolo swung an early haymaker six minutes into the period, when Pinamonti, Volpato, and Berardi combined to see Berardi lay the ball across for Pinamonti, who evaded the ineffective marking of Bremer to one-time it past a flat-footed Perin at the near post. It was the Neroverdi’s first shot on target, the 14th such goal Juve has allowed this season.
The equalizer seemed to discombobulate Juve, who spent the next few minutes on the defensive a lot more than they had been. Still, Juve created more danger as the half dragged on. Boga’s shot was a little too central and was punched by Muric, then the Ivorian laid in a beautiful ball to the middle of the box that Kalulu was too unselfish with, trying to cushion it down instead of turning it to goal.
Boga nearly got one on his former employers when Conceição hung one up beautifully for him at the far post, but Muric made an extraordinary reaction save to stop him point-blank.
As the game moved into its final phases, Spalletti decided that it was time for a change from the strikerless system and introduced not one but two No. 9s from the bench. Dusan Vlahovic make his return from injury, and he was joined by a sight of Sasquatch-level rarity: that of Arkadiusz Milik, who made his first on-field appearance for Juventus since May of 2024, just before he suffered a knee injury at Euro 2024.
Vlahovic nearly made an immediate impact when Yildiz bent a cross in toward him, but Muric jumped off his line to punch it away just before it reached him. Kalulu tried to put the ball back into the box, but Vlahovic’s attempt to head it back into the box took a glance off of Idzes—a glance that looked as though it might’ve been off his outstretched arm. Referee Matteo Marchetti was called to the monitor after a long check in the VAR room. When he finally emerged, he confirmed that Idzes had handled. It was a close call, but his arm was definitely out.
It was a huge moment — one that Locatelli couldn’t measure up to. His penalty was poor, soft and low, and it was easily swallowed up by Muric, who guessed his direction correctly.
Edon Zhegrova was immediately thrown on for a gassed Conceição as Juve made a mad dash to make up for the squandered penalty. Idzes made up for his mistake with a huge defensive header to guide another cross away from Vlahovic, and in the final minute of normal time Yildiz put in a delicious cross that was met in the air by Milik, only to see Muric dive for a one-handed save, his parry getting the ball just beyond the outstretched leg of Vlahovic.
There were appeals for another handball halfway through stoppage time, but it certainly wasn’t a penalty. Yildiz fired high from a tight angle in the left channel. A final desperation heave was snatched away from the head of Milik by Muric, and Sassuolo had wedged a monkey wrench into Juve’s Champions League chase.
