This couldn’t possibly be happening again.
That’s what I was thinking two minutes into the second half of Juventus’ Sunday prime-time tilt against Lazio, when the Biancocelesti took an inexplicable 2-0 lead despite Juve dominating every facet of the game up to that point, save for a freak breakthrough that had come after Manuel Locatelli was jumped in the final minute of first-half stoppage time and Pedro converted the team’s first shot on target via a deflection.
Days after Juventus generally outplayed
Atalanta in the Coppa Italia only to crash out of the competition 3-0, Juve had been far and away the better team against Lazio, but those two freakish goals had the team trailing by two and on their way to yet another loss in a game that they had been far and away the better side.
I was still thinking it as the last minutes of stoppage time ticked away. Despite having gotten back into the game just before the hour mark, Juve were still staring defeat in the face, before the man who has played every single minute of the 2025-26 season produced a massive moment. Pierre Kalulu’s thunderous header off a Jérémie Boga cross in the final minute of stoppage time salvaged a 2-2 draw, even though the point still felt very much like a missed opportunity given the way Juve dominated the game and the teams’ respective form coming into the match. One point was better than none, but the way the game went Juve would’ve expected to finish with three points, and instead had to wait for Monday’s Roma result to see if they would remain in the top four past the week.
Luciano Spalletti decided to rotate after the quick turnaround from the Coppa. Dusan Vlahovic was still out, but Kenan Yildiz returned from a minor injury with his new contract in hand. The rotation necessitated a reversion to a 3-4-2-1 formation, backstopped by Michele Di Gregorio. Kalulu, Bremer, and Teun Koopmeiners played in front of him in defense, with Andrea Cambiaso and Juan Cabal playing at wing-back. Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram took up their normal positions in midfield, while Weston McKennie and Yildiz supported Jonathan David in attack.
Maurizio Sarri returned to the Allianz with a much different squad than the one that surprised Juve 1-0 in the andata and lost Igor Tudor his job. Luca Pellegrini was unavailable due to suspension, while Manuel Lazzari, Mattia Zaccagni, and Samuel Gigot were hurt. Sarri’s depth had also been sapped by the winter sales of Matteo Guenduzi and Taty Castellanos. He presented a 4-3-3, anchored by Ivan Provodel. Adam Marusic, Oliver Provstgaard, Mario Gila, and Nuno Taveres provided defensive cover. Toma Basic, Danilo Cataldi, and Kenneth Taylor made up the midfield, while Gustav Isaksen and Pedro offered width to false nine Daniele Maldini.
Juve clearly are growing to enjoy putting the ball down the middle right off the corner, as they did it again after a false start brought things back. David couldn’t quite control it, but it was an early harbinger of things to come.
Juve completely wiped the floor with Lazio in every aspect of the game in the first half, save for the one that counted the most: the scoreline. It felt like whenever they lose the ball, their press immediately took possession back and began to hunt for a gaol. Cambiaso came out of a good combo with Yildiz to fire on goal in the ninth minute, but he put it right at Provodel for an easy save.
Provodel was much called into a much larger role a few minutes later when Kalulu, on the left after a corner, lifted a beautiful cross into the box that found Bremer rising for the header, but the Lazio keeper somehow get a hand up to claw the ball out from under the bar.
Halfway through the first period Juve saw a pair of officiating calls go adversely. First, Cabal was tripped up as he advanced the ball into the box, a clear penalty that both referee Marco Guida and VAR Paolo Mazzoleni declined to take action on. In fairness, Guida could’ve at least played advantage, as seconds later Koopmeiners ran onto a layoff by Yildiz and swept it home first time, but Thuram was quickly—and correctly—flagged for a passive offside, screening Provodel’s vision from an offside position.
Koopmeiners wanted to put that goal on his sheet and fired another long-range dart six minutes later, only to see it bend wide at the last minute. Bremer blasted another header just over the bar, and Cambiaso was blocked by Taylor after being found in all sorts of space on the right. Lazio finally fired a warning shot with less than five minutes to go in the half when Tavares hit a pacy cross through the goalmouth but didn’t have any targets near it, while David headed over from another Kalulu cross.
But Juve were to end up walking into the locker rooms stunned after a big mistake let Lazio nab the breakthrough. Locatelli took too long to offload the ball and was jumped from behind by Maldini in his own territory. The ball quickly zipped upfield to Pedro. The venerable Spaniard tried to put the ball across Di Gregorio to the far post, but a deflection by Bremer as he tried to block turned into a disaster: the Brazilian’s touch redirected it to the near post, leaving Di Gregorio completely stranded to watch Lazio create a stunning breakthrough.
Spalletti immediately made an attacking change at the break, sending on Edon Zhegrova for Cabal. Turns out he’d need it, because another lapse put Juve firmly behind the eight ball just two minutes into the second period. An excellent long ball by Cataldi found Isaksen, who had gotten behind Cambiaso far too easily. The Swedish winger quickly settled the ball and blasted it over Di Gregorio and into the roof of the net.
Juve immediately tried to find their footing again, and Yildiz nearly mustered a quick response with one of his trademark far-post curlers, only to be denied by a flying save from Provodel. In the 58th minute Cambiaso’s cutback was cleared away by Provstgaard seconds before it could be fired on frame, but less than 60 seconds later the wing-back made up for his error a bit when he collected the rebound off another excellent Provodel save and floated a cross in from the left that met McKennie perfectly. His header from seven yards surprised Provodel at his near post and bounced into the net off the inside of the upright, announcing it was game back on with half an hour to go.
Invigorated by the goal, Juve started moving at a frenetic pace to try to pick up the equalizer. Cambiaso came close to another assist minutes after his first, but the ball flew just over McKennie’s head and Bremer was too late to reach it at the back post. Locatelli went for his own redemption strike two minutes later but missed a foot or two wide.
Lazio’s chances to try to reestablish their lead were few and far between, and Taylor wasted a good one after Matteo Cancellieri dispossessed Yilidz to start a quick counter. A few minutes later Thuram sent David into the box, who squared the ball perfectly for what would likely have been a tap-in by Bremer, but Tavares came out of nowhere and slid in from behind the big Brazilian to get his foot to the ball a split-second before.
Juve continued to push, and Lazio continued to hold on for dear life, thanks in most part to their goalkeeper. Provodel again denied Yildiz. In the 82nd minute McKennie again put the ball into the net, but this time there were no questions over the offside call as he was well off after Kalulu gathered his own blocked shot and tried to cross.
Lazio should’ve sealed the game four minutes from time when they managed to break out for a three-on-two counterattack, but Tijjani Noslin airmailed his shot from a free position in the box. Zhegrova put a curler just over the far corner, and Yildiz was denied once more, this time at the near post, just as stoppage time commenced.
The game was headed into the last of the six minutes added on by Guida when Kalulu’s moment arrived. Fabio Miretti switched play to Boga, who took a touch to the byline and sent the ball in to the Frenchman, who took advantage of a ball-watching Romagnoli to float into a pocket of space devoid of defenders and deliver a powerful header to even the score.
Things weren’t done, as Guida tacked on two more minutes to the added time to account for the goal and an injury stoppage for Provodel. In the second of the two Loïs Openda had two chances within 30 seconds to complete the comeback and give Juve a stunning victory, but he first pushed a ball into empty space and then headed wide from 10 yards after another good cross from Boga. That turned out to be the final action of the match, and Juve trudged off the field, likely feeling very much like they had left two very big points on the table.
