Ha. Ha, ha ha. And you probably thought Juventus and Inter Milan couldn’t replicate the craziness that came with the first Derby d’Italia that we saw last season. “There was no chance they do it again, right?” is something you may have thought to yourself in the lead-up. No another late comeback or anything that — it just didn’t seem like it was something that could come close to being a thing.
Then again, neither did I.
Boy, do we look like fools for thinking that couldn’t happen.
The big difference
this time: The late Juventus comeback came with a win — and an incredibly unlikely source for the game-winning goal.
Entering Saturday night, Vasilije Adžić didn’t have a single goal to his name at the senior level for Juventus. Hell, he barely played with the big club during his first year in Turin. But against Inter Milan, in the first minute of stoppage time, Adžić provided what was the biggest of thunderbolts off his right foot in a matchup full of top-quality goals. The 19-year-old Montenegrin didn’t hesitate once after getting the ball at his feet from fellow second-half sub Jonathan David. Think of Steph Curry pulling up from like 37 feet just short of the logo at midcourt, folks. This was deep — and yet Adžić let loose and delivered what was a shot that even the strongest of goalkeeping hands couldn’t keep out, giving Juventus a 4-3 win over their hated rivals and keeping their perfect start to the 2025-26 season intact.
Seriously. They won. They did. The comeback from two goals down was wild last season, but ultimately that was “just” a draw. Juventus went one step further on this night while scoring the same number of goals.
Just when it looked like Juve might lose and do so in not-so-great fashion after Marcus Thuram’s header between two defenders put Inter in front with 15 minutes to go, there were plenty of twists and turns left. If you were a stark believer in “This game still has a goal or two left in it,” you looked like an absolute genius. Because there was even when it might not have looked all that great when Marcus Thuram put Inter ahead.
The traveling fans were buzzing. The home fans were nervous and dreading a weekend full of talk about how Juve weren’t able to beat their most hated rival. All of the narrative was coming to the fore even though there was a decent amount of the game left.
Then the comeback basically got going.
And thank goodness it did. As great as that Kenan Yildiz-inspired comeback at the San Siro was last October, having such a thrilling comeback and getting the three points just makes it all the much more enjoyable.
Beating Inter is always great. But beating Inter with a last-minute golazo that sends the Allianz into a frenzy and subsequently crushes the sole of the traveling fans? Oh, that’s so sweet. That’s just so sweet.
Was it the perfect game? Of course not. Even Igor Tudor said it himself — it wasn’t a great game in terms of Juventus executing things they came into the night trying to do on the field. There were defensive mistakes, there was some sloppy play and some players certainly not having good nights on the field no matter how you try and spin it. (Looking at you, Teun. Please be better. I want you to be good so much!) Like the first Derby d’Italia last season, amongst all the craziness and thrilling moments, there are things that led to those instances in which the overall play wasn’t great.
But hey, Juve’s 3 for 3 to begin the new season and just beat their biggest rivals. Things could definitely be worse.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- How’s your heart rate doing after all that? I ask because I care.
- I also ask because as I drink this cappuccino, I’m also thinking I might need need any more adrenaline and energy rushing through my system right now.
- The facts are the facts: Juventus are undefeated in which Vasilije Adžić scores a banger. Sorry, but these are the facts and they can’t be disputed.
- One part I love about the Adžić goal: If you catch a replay from the right angle, you can see Joao Mario screaming for the ball. Adžić had absolutely no interest in doing any sort of passing. The guy had one thing on his mind — shoot. And he did just that.
- The replays of the celebrations are wonderful, too. Whenever you see Carlo Pinsoglio at least 15 yards out onto the field and sprinting toward the goal scorer with his arms as wide as you can be, you can probably guess Juventus just did something pretty cool.
- Igor Tudor during his pre-match press conference on Friday: We’re not going to change our system.
- Igor Tudor when things kick off against Inter on Saturday: We’re using a 3-5-1-1, not a 3-4-2-1.
- LLOYD KELLY?!
- Lloyd Kelly!!
- With his assist on Kelly’s opening goal, Bremer basically told us “My knee’s all good, homie.”
- Bremer had two assists against Inter. Seriously, he did! He’s now amongst the Serie A leaders in assists. Just like we all predicted before the season started.
- One more Bremer note: I sure did miss seeing him flying through the air trying to get his head on a cross off a corner kick. The first time he connects with one and it finds the back of the net, his celebration is going to be great because of how the past 10 months have gone for him.
- The recipient of the second Bremer assist was Yildiz and I feel like this is an appropriate time to say the kid is approaching the level where we start to seriously consider if he’s on the brink of stardom. They’re already bringing it up on broadcasts, there’s surely going to be plenty of articles after this one that mention it. He’s 20 years old and his importance to this team is just becoming greater and greater. He’s now having Serie A title contenders basically crafting their entire defensive plan around him as Inter did as Saturday night’s game went on. If that ain’t the sign of a budding star, I don’t know what is.
- On top of the brilliant goal, Yildiz also had an assist. He’s now the Serie A leader in assists, despite Bremer’s best efforts. Pretty good start to the season he’s having, don’t you think?
- I mean, just how perfectly placed was Yildiz’s shot on his goal? Come on, man. You can strike it better than that … unless you’re Vasilije Adžić apparently.
- Plus, Yildiz getting a piggyback ride from Dusan Vlahovic as he celebrate his goal was pretty amusing.
- Vlahovic had 14 touches. Fourteen! In over 70 minutes! He was so isolated up top. So, so isolated.
- Little did we know, basically every goal after that one would just get better and better. Well, except for the fact that even though the goals were great, it was Inter scoring some of them. There’s that minor detail.
- Marcus Thuram didn’t celebrate a goal against the club his dad played for and his little brother currently represents. I say this because Khephren Thuram, scoring all of about six minutes after his older brother, celebrate like he was trying to offset Marcus’ offering. For a usually pretty chill dude, Khephren was maybe as hyped as I can remember him being after a goal. That made me smile.
- Another note about Juventus’ Thuram: The game-winning doesn’t happen unless Khephren doesn’t hold off his man and keep the movement alive right before the pass to David. He’s good. He’s really good.
- The combined xG on Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s two goals in this one? Oh, all of about 0.08. Like … what? We don’t like the club in which he plays for, but those two goals were pretty great individual efforts.
- Consider me surprised that Juan Cabal was amongst the three-man group of players Tudor brought off the bench as part of his first move in the second half. Thought we wouldn’t be seeing him until later in the month at the earliest. Yet there he was! Glad we have both of the torn ACL boys back now.
- The two goalkeepers combined to make one save. That’s crazy.
- Remember last season when we were saying if it wasn’t for a couple of world-class saves from Michele Di Gregorio then Inter might have had five or six goals rather than four? Di Gre only had one save in this one and it was a pretty routine catch for a goalkeeper is his talents.
- Tudor will get some stick for his subs — most notably the timing of them in the second half. But you can’t really argue with him going with somebody like Adžić when the end result is a game-winning goal like that.
- Pierre Kalulu, what we doing on the third Inter goal?
- We’re hitting 1,500 words with this sentence right here. So much happened in this one that I will fully admit I probably missed a few things. But I do know this: We will be drinking some bourbon tonight, and we’ll be doing it while being in a very good mood thanks to Juventus. This is always the way.
