Saturday night’s matchup between Juventus and Udinese was a critical one for the visitors.
Coming into the day, Juve were in sixth place on 50 points, only a single point behind Roma and Como, their immediate competition for Italy’s final slot in next year’s Champions League. With the two teams ahead of them playing each other on Sunday, guaranteeing that at least one of them would drop points, winning in Udine would guarantee that they would jump one — or even both — in the table.
Juve understood
the brief, and for the vast majority of the game at Bluengergy Stadium they were in control. As they had in the second half against Pisa a week ago, they dispensed with a traditional No. 9 and went with a more fluid false-nine approach, preventing them from planting their line as deep as they wanted and leaving them vulnerable to balls over the top for their speedy forwards.
The result was a 1-0 victory that, after a lack of finishing, a few great saves, and a questionable VAR outcome, could and perhaps should have bene more. The home side showed precious little interest in pushing the ball forward, as well, which helped Juve completely control proceedings for the vast majority of the evening. Regardless of the route taken, Juve was able to bring three points back from Friuli, heaping pressure on Roma and Come to perform on Sunday.
Despite reports all week that he would return, Dusan Vlahovic remained out for Juve, as was Emil Holm. Luciano Spalletti decided to lean into the lessons he ironed last weened, and went with a false-nine 3-4-2-1 setup. Mattia Perin remained in goal, defended by Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Lloyd Kelly. Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso were the wing-backs, flanking the midfield of Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram. Francisco Conceição and Jérémie Boga supported Kenan Yildiz in the attack.
Udinese manager Kosta Runjaic was missing a few more players, with Adam Buska, Nicoló Bertola, Jordan Zemura, and Alessandro Zanoli out. He countered with a 3-1-4-2. Maduka Okoye played in goal, protected by Christian Kabasele, Thomas Kristensen, and Kingsley Ehizibue. Jesper Karlström was dropped in front of goal, with Oier Zarraga, Arthur Atta, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp, and Hassane Kamara a step in front of him. Nicolò Zaniolo and Keinan Davis formed the strike duo.
The majority of the first half was quite a dull affair, although it did start to establish some patterns. The long balls over the top started making trouble early, the first of them sending Boga through in the 13th minute, but he let himself get strung a little too close to the byline, and Okoye was able to cover his near post with relative ease. Udinese barely got themselves upfield at all, with their only strike at goal being a long shot from Atta that was an easy save for Perin.
Another long ball for Boga saw him narrow his angle too much, but after that passage of play he and Yildiz swapped places, moving central while the young Turk kicked outside. It took less than two minutes for the change to pay dividends. Kelly dropped another long ball in, and Yildiz held off Zaraga to deliver a perfect ball for Boga for an easy tap-in.
It was here that things began to pick up. Just a few minutes later Conceição looked to feed Boga through the left channel, but Okoye managed to get a foot to it and deflect it off the post. Atta had a shot blocked just before the half, and Ekkelenkamp sent the ensuing corner into orbit to send the teams into the locker rooms.
There was some concern at halftime when Thuram came out of the tunnel earlier than his teammates and looked to be trying to run off some sort of knock. Whatever his efforts were they didn’t succeed, and he left the field for Teun Koopmeiners within four minutes of the restart.
Udinese’s most dangerous chance came not long after, in what was almost a carbon copy of Boga’s opener. Davis was sent into the box by Atta, but when he crossed the ball into the middle Ekkelenkamp completely missed the ball. The Dutchman wanted a foul called on a covering Cambiaso, but referee Maurizio Mariani was unmoved by his pleas.
Juve started pushing for a second goal, and it began to feel like it was only a matter of time before they found it. In the 56th minute McKennie was denied a tap-in by a last-second lunch from Kabasele, who got the ball away for a throw. Locatelli got into the act two minutes later, forcing Okoye into a good save with a first-time shot, then Boga clipped a ball in that forced Koopmeiners to readjust ever so slightly, getting behind the ball and popping it over the bar. Yildiz got into the act with a low drive that Okoye parried and Kristensen just managed to clear before a Juve player could find it.
With 20 minutes to go it looked like they’d finally found the second. Yildiz pulled out an absolutely magical dribble, turning Zarraga inside out before putting the ball into the path of Conceição, who took one touch before whacking it across Okoye and into the net. It was a tidy finish, but Juve’s celebrations were cut short when VAR Lorenzo Maggioni summoned Mariani to the pitchside monitor. He had clocked Koopmeiners as having been in an offside position on the shot, and the check was to see if he’d interfered with Okoye. It’s hard to say that he did—Okoye clearly saw the ball all the way, and there was no chance he would’ve reacted fast enough to save it—but Mariani found a way, announcing upon his return from a relatively lengthy review that the goal wouldn’t count.
Yildiz continued to forge ahead for a goal, and for the last 15 minutes completely abused 19-year-old substitute defender Branimir Mlacic. But the final touch simply wasn’t there. McKennie had another great ball cleared from his path at the last second, this time by Kristensen, and a beautiful passing sequence along the left side of the box saw Fabio Miretti put in position to score, but he went for finesse instead of power and Okoye was able to once again able to pull off an excellent save.
Udinese never so much as put up a last minute push at the goal. Zaniolo earned a free kick in stoppage time but slammed the resulting shot wide, and in the last minute of the minimum of five Perin jumped off his line to claim a pass by Kristensen before Zaniolo could pounce. Mariani added yet another 90 seconds or so to the end, but Udinese never mounted a real threat, and Juve went into the locker room for the final time victorious, and watching what happened in Como on Sunday with great interest.
