It would be accurate to call Tuesday’s Champions League play-off round first leg between Juventus and Galatasaray a roller coaster ride — albeit one that ended in a Final Destination-style gore-fest.
It wasn’t just the way Juventus self-immolated in the second half in Istanbul. It was the complete reversal from both the first half of the match and the improved attitude that the Bianconeri have shown since Luciano Spalletti arrived in Turin.
Indeed, Juve showed that very mentality in the first half.
After making a horrific mistake in their own box that led to Galatasaray opening the scoring, they came back and tied the score a minute and 25 seconds later. That that goal came from Teun Koopmeiners, who hadn’t had a goal contribution all season, was better. Even more fun was Koopmeiners’ second goal, a fantastic strike that showed us a glimpse of what the club paid €60 million for two summers ago.
But it all fell apart after the break. Juve were trailing again by the hour mark, then went down to 10 men when Juan Cabal, who had been subbed on at halftime to keep Andrea Cambiaso from getting his own second yellow, was booked twice in eight minutes. By then, the Bianconeri were finding new and innovative ways to allow goals. Whether they were coming off an opponent’s chest or being gifted by yet more madness in the box, one thing was clear: the Bianconeri had suffered a complete and utter meltdown, the kind we would see from previous teams over the last five years but seemed like it was getting buffed out from this group by this manager.
The 5-2 defeat left Juve with an almighty mountain to climb in the second leg next Wednesday.
Injuries had been relatively limited for Spalletti over the last few weeks, but the injury list had lengthened since Saturday. Dusan Vlahovic had been joined by Jonathan David on the treatment table, and Emil Holm was also out with a muscle injury. With his two top strikers out, Spalletti decided to leave his third on the bench and use an unorthodox strategy. He deployed a 4-3-3 setup, anchored in goal by Michele Di Gregorio. Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Cambiaso formed the defensive line. Khéphren Thuram returned to the lineup after missing the Inter game, joining Manuel Locatelli and Koopmeiners in midfield. Weston McKennie, who Spalletti had been talking up in recent weeks as an option as the No. 9, was tasked with doing exactly that, flanked by Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz.
Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk had a full squad, with the exception of former Juve midfielder Mario Lemina, who was suspended via yellow card accumulation. He had multiple other former Serie A players in the team, including three in the starting XI. Ugurcan Çakir started in goal behind a 4-2-3-1 formation. Roland Sallai, Davinson Sánchez, Abdülkerim Bardakci, and Ismail Jakobs made up the back four. Gabriel Sara and Lucas Torreria made up the double pivot in midfield. Two former Napoli men were in the front four, with Baris Yilmaz, Yunus Akgün, and Noa Lang supporting Victor Osimhen.
Things looked a little off at the start of the match. Juve’s passing felt rushed as Galatasaray employed an intense press. They committed four fouls in the first six minutes, and turned the ball over numerous times as they tried to break out. Gala had one long-range shotfrom Akgün fly just wide and Sara had another blocked. Yildiz tried to unfurl his favorite curler from the left side and it looked like he might have it on target, but Sánchez got a leg out and deflected it over.
But 15 minutes in Juve were bit for the first time — and not the last — by some serious mistakes in their own box. Cambiaso tried to get a throw-in to Yildiz, who was tracking back to be an option. His touch was far too heavy and Osimhen came in to steal it in the top corner of the penalty area. Torreira moved it quickly inside to Lang, who was prevented from shooting by Bremer, but the ball ricocheted back into the path of Sara, whose finish was perfect, bending the ball around an otherwise well-positioned Kalulu and rifling it into the net.
Juventus were behind for 85 seconds. As soon as the ball was kicked off, Cambiaso received a pass from Kelly, evaded a tackle from Yilmaz, and charged upfield. He lofted a perfect ball for Kalulu, whose powerful header was met with a fabulous save by Çakir, but the rebound went right to a trailing Koopmeiners, who easily tapped it home.
It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Cambiaso had played a vital part in the equalizer, but he’d been having serious problems with Yilmaz on his flank, and two minutes after Juve scored he was finally booked for hauling him down, putting him over the suspension threshold and on thin ice defensively. In the 27th minute, a more serious issue cropped up when Bremer crumpled to the grass away from the ball. It was clear that he was dealing with some kind of thigh issue, but even though Federico Gatti immediately stripped off and headed to the touchline the Brazilian insisted on trying to continue.
Five minutes later, Juve had completely flipped the game around. An interception by Kelly was fed to Koopmeiners, who played a beautiful one-two with McKennie that led him clean through the defense. Sánchez and Sallai tried to recover and converge on him, but the Dutchman slammed a rocket into the top corner from 18 yards to put Juve into the lead.
It wasn’t long before more cracks began to appear. Cambiaso committed another foul on Yilmaz that included an incidental arm to his face, but Dutch referee Danny Makkelie refrained from pulling out a second yellow, much to the home team’s umbrage. A few minutes later, Bremer finally had to give up and head to the sidelines, replaced by Gatti.
Spalletti used his second change at halftime, pulling Cambiaso in favor of Cabal to insulate the former from his booking. But there wasn’t any improvement in the level of defense on that flank. Four minutes into the half, Cabal was absolutely dominated along the wing by Yilmaz, and a few touches later the Colombian got in Gatti’s way going up for a high loose ball, allowing Torreira to head the ball to Yilmaz. The winger fired a cross/shot toward the back post. Di Gregorio went down to try to clear it, but only pushed it to the feet of Lang, who easily finished to tie the score.
Juve made an effort to push forward after conceding again, but they weren’t as sharp as they had been in the first half, and Gala’s pressure was starting to tell. When they did have to defend, they were looking more and more vulnerable without Bremer as an anchor. Cabal in particular was having a time, repeatedly getting roasted by Yilmaz, and in the 59th minute he yanked him down on the right wing, earning a booking of his own. Sara whipped the ball into the middle at a somewhat awkward height, and it skipped off Sánchez’s chest, diverting it just enough to move past Di Gregorio’s hands and give Galatasaray the lead back.
Yildiz nearly came up with a beautiful response when he darted around the box and lofted a ball toward McKennie, but it was cleared at the vital moment. That turned out to be Juve’s last gasp, because things went from bad to worse three minutes later when Cabal again tangled with Yilmaz, hauling him down and earning a very non-controversial second yellow, 22 minutes after he was put on to protect another guy from getting a second yellow card and only eight minutes after his first booking.
Juve were forced into a shell at that point, and Buruk went for the jugular by introducing Leroy Sané from the bench. The Gala attack came in waves, pressing ferociously as Juve tried to get the ball clear. With 15 minutes to go Juve had another brain fart in their own box. Thuram somehow thought that passing the ball back into his own six-yard box was a bright idea, and saddled with a hospital ball Kelly had little chance to evade the tackle of Osimhen. Lang picked up the loose ball and flipped it over a stranded Di Gregorio to double the lead.
The hosts weren’t done, and Kelly was victimized again four minutes from time, losing the fight for a ball with Osimhen, who got the ball outside to Sacha Boey, whose shot from a tight angle six yards out had far too much pace for Di Gregorio to get to, providing the final margin of a night that started well before falling off a cliff.
