As Juventus frantically pushed for an equalizer for the last 25 minutes of Saturday’s stunning 1-0 loss against Cagliari, one question repeatedly came to mind: where was this urgency for the first 65 minutes?
The rest of the match had been a completely one-sided affair. Juve finished the match with 78.1 percent of possession. Cagliari simply hadn’t been able to get the ball out of their own end for the entire night, misfiring on a full third of their pass attempts. But the Bianconeri completely failed to turn all that dominance into the amount of clear-cut scoring chances you’d expect from that level of control of the match. Only five of their 21 shots hit the target, and when the Bianconeri did beat Elia Caprile they were thwarted by the bad luck of the goalpost.
But by that point, Cagliari had done the unthinkable and stolen away for a shocking lead. All it took was the defense switching off for a single free kick, the delivery of which was volleyed impeccably by Luca Mazzitelli—who had otherwise only completed 52 percent of his passes on the day—for the game’s only goal.
It was only then that Juve found a second gear, but by then it was too late. The question then became how, after three games in which Juve looked like they were finally rounding into form, they could have lost a game like this against a team that had won against Juve once since the Allianz opened. That lack of urgency was immediately apparent, and it looked as if the Old Lady had possibly come down with a case of Victory Disease, expecting their trip to Sardinia to be a walk in the park after two dominant wins and a draw that should’ve been win. Perhaps they had looked past their opponents to Wednesday’s looming matchup with Benfica in the Champions League, a massive fixture for Juve’s chances at qualifying for the knockout rounds.
One way or another, the team simply wasn’t there in the same way as they had been in their previous two wins over Cremonese and Sassuolo, and ultimately that complacency cost them three massive points, dropping them four points back of Napoli, who earlier in the week had dropped points themselves in their makeup game against Parma.
Luciano Spalletti got Federico Gatti and Francisco Conceição back from injury, but was still missing Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani, and Teun Koopmeiners were the only other players out. He returned to the 4-2-3-1 that he’s been tinkering with the last few weeks. Mattia Perin spelled Michele Di Gregorio in goal, while Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Andrea Cambiaso stretched across the bakc. Teun Koopmeiners partnered with Manuel Locatelli in midfield, while Weston McKennie, Fabio Miretti, Kenan Yildiz, and Jonathan David made up an imposing attacking quartet.
Cagliari manager Fabio Pisacane had a longer injury list, missing Michael Folorunsho, Andrea Belotti, Gabriele Zappa, Alessandro Deiola, and Matteo Felici. He countered with a 3-5-2, with the back three of Yerry Mina, Sebastiano Luperto, and Zé Pedro screening Caprile. The exciting prospect Marco Palestra joined with Adam Obert on the wings, flanking the trio of Michel Adopo, Gianluca Gaetano, and Mazzitelli in midfield. Semih Kilisçoy and Sebastiano Esposito tipped the spear in attack.
The rhythm of the game was established pretty much immediately. Juve attacked, and attacked, and attacked some more. Cagliari were absolutely incapable of getting out of their own half. But much like the Lecce game, Juve didn’t turn that dominance into significant scoring opportunities. Fifteen minutes in Miretti thought he’d earned a penalty in the righ channel, but referee Davide Massa was called to the VAR monitor, determining that Miretti had actually hit Mazzitelli’s leg as he took a shot, not the other way around, and the penalty was chalked off.
It wasn’t until 10 minutes later that Juve actually tested Caprile in goal when Miretti’s deflected effort was parried by the Cagliari keeper after a tricky deflection. But that was the only shot on target in the half, with most attacks ending in an inability to put the ball into a shooting position—or, if they managed it, a blocked shot. Esposito almost hit an epic own-goal from an insane angle after swinging his leg a an attempted clearance, but the volley inched over the crossbar. Bremer found himself in good position for a header in first-half stoppage time, but flat missed the cross from Miretti.
Cagliari first brought Perin into action just minutes after the break when Esposito tried to fizz the ball across goal from the byline. Juve started to hit long-range shots more and more as they tried to break the deadlock, with varying degrees of success. Cambiaso forced Caprile into a flying save 10 minutes into the half, while Kelly took a potshot that went way over the bar. Things looked more promising in the 62nd minute when Yildiz intercepted a pass in the attacking third and danced his way past a trio of would-be tacklers to get to his favorite spot in the left channel, but his attempt to go for the far corner had a little too much air under it.
It was only two minutes later that everything went pear-shaped.
That was when Gaetano flipped a free kick into the box for Mazzitelli. Kalulu fell asleep and let the Cagliari midfielder settle into a pocket of space a few yards above the penalty spot, and the delivery was perfectly weighted for him to hit a volley that took Perin completely by surprise. It had taken 65 minutes for Cagliari to get their first shot on target, and it was in the back of the net.
Spalletti reacted immediately, sending Edon Zhegrova and Loïs Openda into the game, and the team in general perked up and moved with the alacrity of someone who had forgotten an appointment. Caprile parried away a dangerous cross/shot from Kalulu in the 71st minute and then deflected a powerful effort from Yildiz after the young Turk dribbled through two more defenders.
It was Yildiz again with six minutes to go who must have surely thought he’d equalized when his shot, which he’d aimed for the far post, deflected off Mina and looked for all the world like it was about to fly past a wrong-footed Caprile, only to instead smash into the base of the post.
Six minutes of stoppage time saw Juve come close halfway through, when Yildiz found Bremer in the middle of the box but the Brazilian’s shot hit the trailing leg of Obert, who didn’t know much about where the ball had been going. But when Massa’s final whistle screamed out across the Unipol Domis, the Cagliari faithful celebrated, while Juve went home with questions to answer before a hugely important week gets underway.
