Normally, a trip to a provincial city to play a club in a stadium with a capacity on the lean end of five figures would be the kind of game Juventus and their fans would go into with a lot of confidence.
But Sunday’s game against Como was a little different.
Yes, Como was only in their second season back in the top flight after a 21-year absence that saw them drop as far as Serie D. Yes, the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia only holds 13,602 fans. But Como aren’t your garden-variety provinciale. They have the richest owners in calcio, a coach in Cesc Fabregas that has them playing eye-catching and effective football, and players like the wunderkind attacking midfielder Nico Paz playing their trade on the field. They breezed to safety in their first season back in Serie A last year, finishing an easy 10th. Whoever they play, big or small, is in for a tough time.
Juventus sure found that out.
In Serie A’s lunchtime kickoff, the Bianconeri looked like they hadn’t quite digested their midday meal. The home team ran out to a lead less than three-and-a-half minutes into the game, and Juventus never really managed to muster an answer. A spurt at the end of the first half provided some hope, but there was never a true challenge to the Como goal, and after a stunning strike from Paz 11 minutes from time, the Bianconeri were condemned to their first defeat of the year by a 2-0 score.
Igor Tudor was missing his defensive talisman, Gleison Bremer, for the forseable future after surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee. The Brazilian joined an injury list that included Edon Zhegrova, Fabio Miretti, Juan Cabal and Arkadiusz Milik. The lack of depth in the back caused Tudor to shake up his formation for the first time this year, shifting to a 4-3-3 look in front of Michele Di Gregorio. Pierre Kalulu, Daniele Rugani, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso lined up in defense, while Teun Koopmeiners, Manuel Locatelli, and Khéphren Thuram manned the midfield. Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz were wide to support Jonathan David in the striker spot.
Fabregas wasn’t on the bench himself, but instead in the stands sitting out a ban. Jesus Rodriguez was similarly suspended, while Jayden Addai, Sergi Roberto, Assane Diao, and Alberto Dossena were laid up in the treatment room. The hosts came out in a 4-2-3-1 formation, anchored by Jean Butez in goal. Ivan Smolcic, Diego Carlos, Marc Oliver Kempf, and Alberto Moreno screened the Frenchman in defense. Máximo Perrone and Lucas da Cunha made up the double pivot, while Mërgim Vojvoda and Maxence Caqueret flanked Paz behind an old friend, Alvaro Morata, in the attack.
Things got off to a depressing start. After Cambiaso blocked a Vojvoda cross behind for a corner, Como took it short, eventually leaving the ball to Paz out on the right side. He feathered an absolutely gorgeous cross to the back post, where Kalulu had completely lost Kempf. The German center-back slammed a volley into the roof of the net to put Juve behind the eight-ball early.
Como’s press started giving Juve all kinds of problems, and they just barely avoided a couple of costly giveaways in the back, while continually bogging down as they tried to go forward. Eventually, they began to move themselves closer to goal, but their finishing left much to be desired. Locatelli completely shanked an attempt at the far post after Yildiz found him in the left side of the box, then Conceição and Yildiz both loaded up from distance when the better option might’ve been to look for a teammate. The former came much closer than the latter, but neither found the target.
In the 27th minute, Yildiz decided to remind everyone Paz wasn’t the only starlet in the match, exquisitely dribbling between two markers and leaving the ball across the grass to Koopmeiners, who was in a good spot but was unfortunate to have Kempf right in front of him to block the shot in close.
As the half reached its later stages, Juve’s attacks started to look a lot more promising, but their last pass kept letting them down. David started a nifty one-man counterattack just after the half-hour mark, but when Yildiz came up to help out his return ball was well behind the Canada international. Koopmeiners had two shots blocked within seconds, while in the meantime Di Gregorio made some good saves against Morata and Moreno to keep the margin at one.
It looked for a moment like the building momentum had paid off in the 36th minute when Koopmeiners ran on to a good long pass from Locatelli, then from the byline found David for a simple tap-in, but as soon as the ball hit the net the flag went up. It was close, and VAR did check the semi-automated offside tool, but the call was confirmed. It would be the closest Juve came to scoring all afternoon.
A few more shots before the half made it look very much like the momentum was on Juve’s side as they went into the locker room, and that the equalizer may yet be coming. But the second period got started slowly, in large part because of a head injury to Kempf that required a Chiellini special before he could continue. Di Gregorio had to parry another long-range effort, and this time was lucky that Caqueret turned the rebound wide. The attack, meanwhile, was only functioning in fits and starts. Just after the hour, Koopmeiners hit a direct free kick that flew just over the bar, and a minute later he was on the end of a cross by Cambiaso, but could only manage a weak header that Butez saved easily.
As the game progressed, all eyes were on the Juventus bench to see what substitutions Tudor would make. They stayed there … and stayed there … and stayed there, even as Como made changes of their own and Kempf’s head injury reopened, causing another long stoppage. The 70th minute, and then the 75th went by with no indication that the manager was ready to send on any subs.
He finally pulled the trigger in the 77th minute, leaving Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie a scant 13 minutes to make a difference.
Less than two minutes later, it didn’t matter anyway.
As Juve committed more men forward, Perrone spotted Paz with room to run and found him with a long ball. Cambiaso was the only one there to cover him, but Real Madrid loanee spun him around so hard it was a wonder he didn’t drill into the ground. His space cleared, he unleashed a fantastic far-post curler that Di Gregorio had zero chance to do anything about.
Cambiaso attempted a quick response when he ran onto a loose ball and hit it hard and low, but the shot was right at Butez for a relatively easy save. The two stoppages to tend to Kempf led to eight minutes being added to the end of the game, and as the clocked ticked over into those extra minutes Vlahovic had an opportunity to set up a grandstand finish from a direct free kick, but Butez was able to get to his strike at the bottom corner.
The rest of the eight minutes slipped by, and Juve saw their unbeaten run to start the season come to an end, and found themselves winless in their last seven in all competitions.
