Like Danny, I too have spent a long time trying to think back to a time when Juventus dominated a game as thoroughly as they did against Lecce on Saturday and fail to win. I’ve tried to think of any game where
one team has dominated so thoroughly and not won. The closest I came up with was the Euro 2012 quarterfinal between Italy and England, when the Azzurri, inspired by a superlative performance by Andrea Pirlo, completely smothered the Three Lions but somehow contrived to keep the scoreline 0-0 through 120 minutes, before prevailing in an eventful penalty shootout.
Unfortunately, Juventus don’t play in MLS in the ’90s, so there was no penalty shootout to fall back on when the whistle blew on the 1-1 draw against the Salentini. They had outshot their opponents by more than 4-to-1. They had controlled 71.6 percent of the possession, had a 10-1 edge in corners, made three times as many dribbles, and only allowed one shot on target.
And yet, there it was at the end: 1-1.
It was the perfect storm of inefficiency and boneheadedness that lead us here. Inefficiency, because of their 25 shots they only put five on target — one of which was an outrageous penalty miss by Jonathan David. Add in a couple of timely Lecce blocks, a shot slamming off the upright, and the ensuing fluffing of the subsequent rebound, and you had little to show for all that dominant play. Boneheadedness, because Lecce’s sole shot on goal came after Andrea Cambiaso made a long-distance square pass in his own third that was intercepted and slammed into the net by Lameck Banda. It was an error that’s inexcusable for 10-year-olds, let alone someone playing top-level football in Europe.
To add insult to injury, Roma lost later on Saturday night, so while Juve did jump them into fourth place, it was only on their head-to-head tiebreaker, as opposed to clearing them on points. It’s clearly one of the most frustrating results Juve have put up in many years — and given the chaos of the last few years that’s saying something.
Luiciano Spalletti surprised everyone by starting the new year in a new formation. While many assumed the 3-4-2-1 would stay in place when the lineups were announced, instead, the team began playing in a 4-2-3-1. Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani, Federico Gatti, and Arkadiusz Milik missed out on the transformation, which saw Michele Di Gregorio start behind the back four of Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Cambiaso. Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram manned the double pivot in midfield, while Francisco Conceição, Weston McKennie, and Kenan Yildiz supported David up front.
Lecce manager Eusebio Di Francesco was serving the first of a two game suspension, so his assistant Fabrizio Del Rosso. They were missing Lassana Coulibaly, who was away at AFCON, while Riccardo Sottil, Medon Berisha, Christian Fruchtl, and Balthazar Pierret were injured. Wladimiro Falcone took up his post between the sticks, protected by Matías Pérez, Tiago Gabriel, Kialonda Gaspar, and Antonino Gallo. Mohamad Kaba, Youssef Maleh, and Ylber Ramadani, played in midfield, while Santiago Pierotti and Banda flanked Italy youth international star Francesco Camarda in the trident.
It was immediately apparent how the flow of the game would develop. Juventus completely smothered Lecce, pushing forward and sealing them in. Lecce could never string more than a pass or two together before someone in a black shirt (it was a third kit kinda night) was in their face winning the ball back. In the sixth minute, Yildiz was fed after David jumped Gaspar in the Lecce half and fired a toe-poke at goal, only to have it blocked behind. The ensuing corner was taken short and then crossed in to David, who met the ball with a good header and was then completely deserted by Lady Luck, as Falcone saved the shot with his leg, after which the ball skittered across the goal line, bounced off the inside of the post, and back to Falcone, all without ever going over.
Momentum kept building, and in the 17th minute Falcone had to dive to poke a low drive from Cambiaso behind. The Italian was then inches from an assist when he dropped a diagonal layoff into the path of Locatelli at the top of the box, but the captain’s drive whistled a whisker past the post. Just before the half-hour Cambiaso had another fantastic opportunity, but went for power instead of placement and blazed over.
It had been an encouraging positive outing from Cambiaso, which made his mistake all the more brutal when it came. It was the first minute of stoppage time when he took a pass and made a square pass about 23 yards from goal. It was meant for Bremer, but was at least three yards in front of him and rolled all the way to the left channel. A surprised Kalulu tried to recover but Banda was quicker. He took a nice touch to get himself clear of Bremer and lashed a shot from the top of the box that screamed into the net. After completely dominating the entire match, Juve walked into the tunnel for the break trailing.
Spalletti reacted quickly, sending Edon Zhegrova on for Conceição to start the second period, but for the first few minutes of the second half it looked like Lecce were carrying the momentum of the goal with them out of the locker rooms. But it was a poor pass from Lecce that killed that momentum dead. Gallo’s errant ball found Locatelli near midfield, who unleashed a beautiful through ball to Zhegrova. The winger clipped the ball inside with his first touch, and McKennie similarly tried to help it along. He actually missed his intended target, David, but Yildiz was behind him to keep the attack going, and the Texan was in the perfect pocket of space at the six-yard box when Yildiz’s shot was deflected straight to him. He swung his left foot at it and wrong-footed Falcone by shooting across his face to tie the score.
That removed any semblance of mojo from Lecce, and Juve resumed their dominant position from the first half. Just before the hour a cross by Yildiz took a big deflection and Falcone was forced to punch it away, and his punch fell right to David at the back post, but skimmed off his shin behind. David was right in the middle of things again when a free kick routine saw Locatelli loft one to him in the right channel. He took a roundhouse volley that was blocked by Kaba — or more accurately by Kaba’s outstretched hand. Referee Giuseppe Collu was called to the monitor by VAR Daniele Doveri, and came back with the right call: a penalty for handball.
After what looked like a brief discussion amongst the players, Yildiz handed the ball to David to take the kick. It felt like a risk/reward type situation. If he scored, it’d give him a much-needed confidence boost — but the risk came from the fact that David currently looked like a man who was second-guessing himself about how to tie his shoes.
And so it was here; it looked like he changed his mind the last minute on how he wanted to shoot, and ended up tapping a weak shot down the middle that was so low that Falcone, who was diving to his right, was able to swing his trailing leg and not just save it but blast it clear.
It was a huge letdown, but Juve kept on pushing for the lead. Filip Kostic came agonizingly close from outside the box, flashing a shot a foot or less outside the post. They kept on dominating possession, but some of the thrust had bled out of their attack, leading to a bit more lateral passing and not as many incisive balls as before. But there were still a few chances at hand. In the 89th minute Kostic laid a low cross into space that David met in the left channel, sending a powerful one-timer that was rejected by a fabulous save from Falcone, who managed to throw out an arm and keep the ball out with his wrist.
The board went up for six minutes of stoppage time, and you got the feeling that Juve were going to be able to wrangle one last chance. That chance came with two minutes of the added time left, when Kalulu cut inside from the right and pushed it to Yildiz. His 22-yard shot looked like it was about to save the Bianconeri, but it skipped off the grass and slammed into the far post. The rebound dropped right to Loïs Openda, who had an open net to shoot at but completely mishit it and blasted the ball into the Curva Sud.
It felt like everyone realized that that was the last chance, and the last few attempts to set up a shot looked tired and resigned. Collu’s final whistle brought the game to an end, and Juventus could only trudge off the field wondering how in the world they had failed to take all three points.
