The third-from-last game of the 2025-26 season was important for both Juventus and Lecce.
Juve controlled their own destiny for Champions League qualification, needing to win all three of their remaining matches to guarantee a spot at Europe’s big table. Any slip-up, though, could see Roma, Como, or both get ahead of them in the league table. Lecce started the day four points ahead of Cremonese for the last place of safety in Serie A, and any additional points could be huge in buying themselves safety.
After throwing away points last week against an already-relegated Verona side, Juve simply couldn’t afford to drop any more. They came out of the blocks like they knew it. They opened the scoring in 12 seconds, a new club record for a Serie A game, and could’ve had two more in the first six minutes. It looked like a rout was on.
But despite again controlling the game for most of it, the Bianconeri couldn’t push the ball into the back of the net again. Well, at least not one that counted. Two goals were chalked off for offside in the second half, one of them somewhat questionably. Wladimiro Falcone made a couple of good saves for Lecce, as did his opposite number in the Juventus goal, and ultimately the Old Lady were able to run out of the Stadio Via del Mare with a critical 1-0 win and remained on the inside track for the top four.
Luciano Spalletti finally got to play Dusan Vlahovic from the start for the first time since late November, but Khéphren Thuram failed a late fitness test and Arkadiusz Milik and Juan Cabal remained out with injury. With Vlahovic back into the XI, Spalletti switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation. Michele Di Gregorio started in goal, with Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso arrayed in front of him. Teun Koopmeiners replaced Thuram in midfield next to Manuel Locatelli, with Francisco Concieção, Weston McKennie, and Kenan Yildiz started behind Vlahovic.
Lecce were guided by Eusebio Di Francesco, but they were missing a few players, including Riccardo Sottil, Medon Berisha, Kialonda Gaspar, and Sadik Fofana. Falcone started in goal behind EDF’s own 4-2-3-1. Danilo Veiga, Jamil Siebert, Tiago Gabriel, and Antonino Gallo kept the keeper company while Oumar Ngom and Ylber Ramadani took station in the double pivot. Santiago Pierotti, Lassana Coulibaly, and Lameck Banda stretched out behind Walid Cheddira. In a nice twist for Mother’s Day, the Lecce players wore their mothers’ names on the backs of their jerseys.
If you blinked at kickoff, you may have missed the game’s only goal. The entire team moved forward as one, and Yildiz immediately switched the ball out to the left. Koopmeiners got the ball tangled a bit but was still able to push it wide for Cambiaso. The left-back’s first-time cross came to Vlahovic, who took it down beautifully in traffic, turned past Gabriel, and slammed it into the roof of the net.
Officially listed at 12 seconds — I don’t know who labels these things but it clearly read 11 on the scorebug when the ball hit the net, but *shrug* — it was the third-fastest goal scored in a Serie A game in the last 20 years. It broke the club record for fastest goal in a Serie A game since the statistic was first kept in 2004-05, beating Arturo Vidal, who had scored in 18 seconds against Inter in November of 2012.
Lecce very nearly responded immediately. Banda got down the left and overcame Kalulu’s marking by crossing the ball between his legs to Cheddira, who must’ve thought for all the world he’d scored before Di Gregorio repelled the shot with the inside of his right thigh. Juve streaked straight back down the field and Locatelli found Conceição with a beautiful pass into the right channel, but he bashed it off the underside of the crossbar. Two minutes later Vlahovic had another chance after an interchange with McKennie, but couldn’t slip a shot under Falcone.
After a breathless six minute start, the game settled a bit. Kelly was lucky that Ramadani pulled wide after a bad pass turned the ball over, while at the other end Bremer’s attempt to bicycle kick a flicked corner went badly awry, producing a chuckle or two. As halftime approached Vlahovic took a turnover forced by Conceição into the box and took a good hit, but sailed it less than a foot over. By the time the whistle blew for the break, Lecce must’ve been counting their lucky stars that it wasn’t 2-0, 3-0, or even more as they headed to the locker rooms.
Vlahovic thought that he had things wrapped up less than three minutes after play restarted. A long shot by Cambiaso was parried right into the path of the Serbia international. Falcone made the double save but couldn’t manage a triple, but Vlahovic was offside on the initial shot, and a VAR check took the goal off the board.
Cheddira got into another good position in the 56th minute but badly scuffed his shot. Three minutes later another Lecce giveaway deep in their own half sparked a quick attack, and this time it was Kalulu to put the ball into the back of the net. This one looked certain to stand, but referee Andrea Colombo was called to the monitor by VAR Maurizio Mariani. The call that came this time was more dubious. Vlahovic had come back from an offside position to challenge for the initial ball that Siebert ended up losing. It was ruled influencing the play from an offside position — a rule clearly meant to keep attackers from screening a goalkeeper as opposed to annulling an entire attack because of something that happened 25 yards up the field.
Juve kept Lecce well contained throughout most of the second half, but simply couldn’t get the ball into the net. Yildiz pushed a shot a little bit wide, and Vlahovic didn’t get good contact on a cutback by Conceição. Di Francesco poured subs onto the field, and with 13 minutes left Francesco Camarda and Konan N’Dri nearly combined to tie the game, but the latter fired into the side netting. Five minutes later Di Gregorio had to make a tricky parry to deny a long-range drive by Pierotti.
But that was all that Lecce could muster. They were gifted a prime free kick on the right wing in stoppage time, but Bremer headed the delivery away and Coulibaly’s followup went miles wide. Falcone made another double save right at the end, denying Jérémie Boga 1-on-1 and then Edon Zhegrova on the rebound before Colombo blew the whistle to confirm three critical points for Juventus.
