When you’re chasing in the standings, there are two stark realities: 1) you can only move up if you get help, and 2) even if you don’t get the help, you still have to win to stay in striking distance.
So was the situation on Saturday night in Turin, when Juventus welcomed Pisa to the Allianz. Como had beaten Cagliari earlier in the day, so Juve knew that all a win would do would keep them a point behind the upstart club — but it was also imperative that they did so to keep pace with both them and
with Roma, who play Genoa on Sunday.
For the first 45 minutes, there were some questions. Juve were certainly the better team, but had allowed Serie A’s cellar dwellers to look dangerous from time to time, and simply weren’t doing anything to finish their chances. It looked like another slog against a team in a relegation spot was in the offing.
But on his 67th birthday, Luciano Spalletti baked up a solution at halftime. Altering his formation, removing his faltering striker and going to a false 9 system was, as it turned out, all it took for Juve to make things convincing. They scored four times in the last 36 minutes of the contest, while limiting their opponents to a single shot attempt in the second period. It was a 4-0 victory that ensured Juve kept the pace ahead of next week, when Roma and Como play each other and so at least one of them is guaranteed to drop points.
Spalletti got an important piece back from suspension in Manuel Locatelli, but was still missing Emil Holm and Dusan Vlahovic, who nonetheless is expected back next week. He started the team out in a 3-4-2-1. Mattia Perin was given the start, in a sign that he may have eclipsed Michele Di Gregorio on the depth chart. Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Federico Gatti, made up the back three. Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso were the wing-backs, while Locatelli rejoined Khéphren Thuram in the midfield. Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz supported Jonathan David in attack.
Poor Pisa were propping up the table. It had been 16 games since their sole win of the year in November against Cremonese, and a miracle akin to what Davide Nicola pulled off with Crotone in 2017 is needed to prevent them from staying in Serie A for more than one year. Coach Oscar Hiljemark put out a 3-5-2 to counter Juve’s setup. Brazilian keeper Nícolas started behind the back three of Arturo Calabresi, Antonio Caracciolo, and former Juve youth prospect Francesco Coppola. Wing-backs Mehdi Léris and Samuele Angori bracketed Marius Marin, Michel Aebischer, and Malthe Højholt in midfield. Stefano Moreo and Rafiu Durosinmi paired up in the front.
Things very nearly took a turn for the worse for Juventus within minutes kickoff. Moreo had dropped a pass to Angori and then kept his run going to the near post, where the wing-back found him with an excellent cross. Perin scrambled across and parried it. Angori was quick on the rebound, but was blocked behind by Locatelli, but the header on the resultant corner was far easier for Perin to save.
The flurry of action brought on awful flashbacks of other games were Juve played down to their opponents, but fortunately Juve were able to right themselves relatively early. Thuram missed a curler to the far corner by a whisker, and five minutes later Gatti’s header on a corner came right at Nícolas. The Brazilian faced a much stiffer test less than 60 seconds later when Conceição cut inside and hit a hard, low shot. Yildiz slipped David into the box with a clever pass, but Caracciolo made an impressive sliding block to prevent the Canada international from getting the ball on target.
All the while Pisa got in little jabs that reminded everyone what could happen if Juve let them hang around. Cambiaso made a surprisingly excellent defensive play when he was left one-on-two, disrupting Marin just enough to allow the rest of the defense to rally to help. They were still holding on as the whistle blew for halftime. Juve had had the better of the half, but something was going to need to change if they were going to break through.
Spalletti made that change immediately, removing an underwhelming David and replacing him with Jérémie Boga. He shifted the formation slightly to a 3-4-3, with Yildiz playing as the false nine and McKennie given the freedom to push up into the box from the right. Within two minutes, Boga had forced Léris into a nasty tackle along the wing that brought out a yellow card. Soon, the disruptive force of Boga and the false nine proved decisive.
Funnily enough, the move for the opening goal started with an inaccurate pass. Cambiaso had put a square ball behind McKennie, but he’d put enough mustard on it that it went all the way to Conceição. He quickly pounced, and led Yildiz into the right channel. The young star’s cross was a beautiful first-time chip that found the run of Cambiaso, who had drifted into open space at the back post. He buried his header to put Juve up 1-0.
Juve haven’t lost a game from a winning position this year, and they quickly moved to consolidate that lead. A great long pass from Perin sent Conceição all the way into the box, but he got his shot all wrong at the near post. Ten minutes later, Juve’s lucky bounces continued to hold. When Conceição was dispossessed trying to dribble through two men, McKennie immediately won the ball back on the press, and Locatelli squeezed a shot through Caracciolo’s legs that bonked off the goalpost. The rebound went straight to Thuram, who quickly one-timed the ball into the open net.
It was all but sealed with 15 minutes left, when Bremer found Conceição with a pass that led him down the right wing. He jinked inside and squared to Yildiz, who effortlessly slipped past Coppola before drilling the ball into the far-side netting.
Still Juve kept coming. Cambiaso nearly capped a great night with a curler that just flew past the corner, but it was Boga who put the finishing touch on the cake, taking a glorious through ball from Locatelli before rounding the keeper and burying the shot in the empty net with the last kick of the game to end an excellent second-half performance for the Bianconeri.
