This was entirely predictable.
Juventus were going into their third match in a week against Hellas Verona on Saturday. The previous two were a pair of instant classics that combined to see 15 goals scored, with Juventus come from behind in each to get a win over Inter and a draw against Borussia Dortmund. Each match was decided with a Juventus goal in stoppage time.
It was almost inevitable that, after spending so much emotional capital in those two matches, the Bianconeri came into the Stadio Marc’Antonio
Bentegodi looking more than a little flat. These were a bunch of guys that looked dog tired, and even though they controlled 72.1 percent of possession, by the end of the 1-1 draw they looked exceedingly lucky to get off the field with a point.
And yet, even then Juve had a relatively early lead—one that might have held were it not for the truly terrible performance by referee Antonio Rapuano, and an even worse one by VAR Gianluca Aureliano. The penalty that allowed Verona to draw level was yet another debatable interpretation of the handball rule, and while post-match media discourse was divided on whether it should have been given, all were unanimous that the duo made an egregious error in allowing Verona striker Gift Orban to remain on the field after elbowing Federico Gatti in the face.
The Juventus we all want to see back again is the one where we can shrug these issues off as unfortunate bumps in the road to three more points, but Juve could have won this game ugly had the deciding incidents been properly handled by the officials. Instead, they have to trudge back to Turin with the point and take advantage of the week they now have to rest.
Igor Tudor’s team was moving closer and closer to full strength. Andrea Cambiaso’s two-game suspension was over, while only Fabio Miretti and Arkadiusz Milik remained on the injured list. Tudor played his usual 3-4-2-1. Michele Di Gregorio remained in goal despite his poor performance in midweek, fronted by the back three of Pierre Kalulu, Gatti, and Lloyd Kelly. Joao Mario joined Cambiaso as the wing-backs, flanking the normal pair of Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram in midfield. Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz supported Dusan Vlahovic in attack.
Paolo Zanetti’s Mastiffs were looking at a much longer injury list. Roberto Gagliardini, Tomas Suslov, Nicolas Valenti, Daniel Mosquera, Daniel Oyegoke, Abdou Harroui, and Fallou Cham were all sidelined, perhaps a factor in having only two points through the first three rounds of play. Zanetti countered with a 3-5-2, anchored by Lorenzo Montipò, a goalkeeper always capable of a Stefano Sorrentino award. Victor Nelsson, Martin Frese, and Unai Núñez made up the back three. Rafik Belghali and Domagoj Bradaric played as wing-backs around the midfield three of Antoine Bernede, Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro, and Suat Serdar. Orban started up top along with young Brazilian forward Giovane Nascimento.
The first real signs of trouble came 10 minutes in when Verona went Route One up the middle of the field. Gatti, today deputizing for a resting Bremer in the center of the back three, tried to nod it back to Di Gregorio but got absolutely nothing on his header, instead providing a perfect through ball for Orban. Di Gregorio rushed out and saved Orban’s effort with his legs.
Just under 10 minutes later it looked like things had settled down. Thuram’s simple pass out wide to Conceição turned into something special, as the Portugal international cut inside through an attempted tackle by Bernede, made Serdar look foolish, then beat Montipò with a low shot to the far corner. It was a vintage Conceição strike—but it was also Juve’s last shot attempt until the early phases of the second half.
Verona, meanwhile, managed to register a few shots in the aftermath. Then, just before halftime, the officiating controversy began.
It was a long throw from Bradaric that started things. Locatelli and Joao Mario both went for a defensive header and looked like they got in each other’s way. Joao Mario missed his attempt to clear the ball and instead had it bounce off his arm. Play initially continued until it was brought back for a VAR review.
The question of intent and ability to react—there was a man directly in front of Joao Mario who may have blocked his view of where the ball actually was—were both in play, but Rapuano came back and announced the decision of a penalty (also misidentifying the player his announcement, blaming No. 15 (Kalulu) as opposed to Joao Mario’s No. 25. Orban stepped up to take the kick, and Di Gregorio came millimeters from keeping the ball out of the goal, guessing the right way and putting his hand on the ball, but he didn’t quite have the angle to push it up over the bar as opposed to off the bottom of it.
Orban’s celebrations should have been short-lived. Just two minutes later he threw an elbow into Gatti’s face. Rapuano only produced a yellow card, and what was going on with Aureliano in the VAR center is a complete mystery, because he never called down for any further review despite the clear violent conduct.
Juve headed into the locker room justifiably aggrieved, and they came out looking to rectify the situation. Five minutes after the restart Yildiz took a quick throw—which is becoming a hallmark of Tudor’s style—and sent Vlahovic past Núñez and into the left side of the box. The big striker’s shot, though, was oddly devoid of power and a little too central, and Montipò was able to kick the ball behind for a corner.
Two minutes later, Verona very nearly jumped out into the lead when Thuram was dispossessed and triggered a three-on-three counter. Orban led the charge and eventually fired on goal himself, forcing Di Gregorio to elevate and tip the ball over. The Nigerian striker then gathered a slightly errant pass on another counter and slammed a strong shot over the bar.
Verona thought they had the turnaround in the 67th minute when Núñez flicked a corner kick to the far post where Serdar was ready to tap the ball in, thanks in part to some awful marking by Kalulu. This time VAR actually proved useful, with the semi-automated offside system catching Serdar beyond the line when Núñez made contact with the ball.
Another quick counter saw Orban miss by a sliver again, this time bouncing it wide of the far post. Di Gregorio was again tested by Frese after he half-volleyed a cleared corner back at goal. In all this time, Juve had 70 percent of possession but created very little in the way of attack. In the last 40 minutes of the game they only registered five shots. Perhaps their best chance came with 10 minutes to go, but a good pass by Vasilije Adzic wasn’t controlled by Loïs Openda, pulling him out of shooting position and ultimately leaving Montipò with an easy save.
Time ticked on and, after an inordinate amount of stoppage time, the game fizzled out without a winner, with Juve facing a train ride home to figure out what was needed to raise their game in situations like this.
LE PAGELLE
MICHELE DI GREGORIO – 6. Made some good saves and almost kept Orban’s penalty out. Good recovery from his midweek horror show.
PIERRE KALULU – 5. Not a good showing for the Frenchman. His marking was off all game, and he was VERY lucky that Serdar was offside on the disallowed goal.
FEDERICO GATTI – 5. Didn’t look great in the middle of the back three—he clearly prefers the right. He did make nine clearances but also got lucky his early gaffe didn’t turn into a goal, and had to be careful after an early yellow.
LLOYD KELLY – 6. Led the starting XI with three tackles and also made six clearances. After his horror show of a half-season last year, Kelly’s performances this season have thus far been one of its pleasant surprises.
JOAO MARIO -5. Controversial as the handball might have been, he also had a terrible game, completing only two-thirds of his passes and failing to contribute to any shooting opportunities.
MANUEL LOCATELLI – 5. Didn’t get things moving on offense at all, and was replaced by Teun Koopmeiners at the half.
KHÉPHREN THURAM – 5.5. Got the assist on Juve’s goal and completed 90.9 percent of his passes, but didn’t contribute any key passes beyond that. Still, his importance to the team was underscored by the fact that without him the gears ground even harder.
ANDREA CAMBIASO – 5.5. Had a pair of key passes and blocked a shot but wasn’t impactful otherwise.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 6. A really pretty goal that was vintage Chico, and he completed 97 percent of his passes and made 4 dribbles, but he couldn’t get his teammates going the way he wanted to.
KENAN YILDIZ – 6. Made three key passes but looked completely gassed by the end of the game, which is no surprise at all.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC – 5. Completely isolated, only managing 13 touches in 56 minutes. Really could’ve done better on the chance he had early in the second half.
SUBS
TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 5. Made four tackles and a key pass but was largely not influential.
VASILIJE ADZIC – 5.5. Made a really nice pass that Openda couldn’t deal with, but it was strange to put him into the pivot.
LOÏS OPENDA – 5. Had an opportunity to perhaps win the game but couldn’t control the pass. This wasn’t the kind of game where he could use his skill set to its fullest.
JONATHAN DAVID – 5. Only got to touch the ball eight times, negating his passing skills.
EDON ZHEGROVA – NR. Thrown on late to try to make the impact he made on Tuesday.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
There isn’t a whole ton to quarrel about with Tudor in this match. He made good subs—although the decision to put Adzic in a deeper midfield position was a bit of a head-scratcher—and there weren’t any real tactical mistakes.
The big issues for this game were things that weren’t really in control of: the bad officiating and the fact that his players were mentally and physically spent after a week of insane games. There should perhaps be work on trying to push past that as much as possible, but ultimately there isn’t much Tudor could have done to make this game better.
There’s a lot of internet chatter insisting that the team needs to switch to a three-man midfield in order to compete in that phase, but I think insisting on that after five competitive games and before the new arrivals are fully integrated into the team is more than a little premature. There’s time to see whether the 3-4-2-1 can be successful without making any more drastic changes.
LOOKING AHEAD
Juve have a Saturday home game against an Atalanta team that’s still finding it’s footing post-Gian Piero Gasperini, then travel to Spain for a Champions League clash against Villarreal the following Wednesday.
