Less than 50 days ago, Juventus headed into the Stadio Diego Armando Maradonna with a big chance to pull an upset against defending champions Napoli (barf). The Partenopei were decimated by injuries, and Juve were starting
to pull themselves together under the new management of Luciano Spalletti. But Juve blew that opportunity, with Spalletti choosing the exact wrong time to experiment with Juventus’ front line, allowing even a depleted Napoli side to dominate the first half and ultimately pull out a 2-1 win.
Fast forward to Sunday, and Juventus was presented with a remarkably similar situation. Napoli arrived at the Allianz Stadium still dealing with a monstrous injury list. Antonio Conte only had six outfield players available to him. Two were academy call-ups, one was a new signing that had arrived less than 24 hours earlier, and one was coming off an injury and wouldn’t have many minutes in his legs. Juve also came into the game performing much better, and far more confident, than the team that had lost in Naples.
The result was quite different.
Juve dominated the game in a way that probably wasn’t expected. They allowed only one shot on target the entire game, and completely overpowered the threadbare Napoli midfield. They took the lead in the first half, and it was simple poor fortune that they weren’t up 3-0 going into the break.
But they rectified that by the end of the match. After letting Napoli throw their punches for the first 20 minutes of the half, they reasserted control, and in the final 13 minutes of the game scored twice to seal the deal and send Napoli to their heaviest league defeat of the year. The result pulled the Bianconeri within a point of the Azzurri for fourth place, who are now even with Roma after their 1-1 draw with AC Milan later in the night.
Spalletti was still missing Dusan Vlahovic and Daniele Rugani, but made only one change to the team that beat Benfica on Wednesday. Michele Di Gregorio started in goal behind what started out as a 3-4-2-1. Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Lloyd Kelly screened him in defense, with Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso acting as wing-backs. Manuel Locatelli and Khephren Thuram made up the midfield pivot, while Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz backed up Jonathan David in attack.
It may be easier to list who was available to Conte. His list of missing players was truly astounding. Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Matteo Politano, David Neres, Billy Gilmour, Amir Rrahmani, and Pasquale Mazzocchi all came into the day out of action, Romelu Lukaku was in the squad for the first time since suffering a long-term injury in the fall, and Lorenzo Lucca and Noa Lang — both summer signings — had been sold on. The day before the game, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic suffered an injury that forced him from the lineup as well. Alex Meret started his first game since September behind a 3-4-3 formation. Juan Jesus, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and Alessandro Buongiorno played in defense. Miguel Gutiérrez and Leonardo Spinazzola were out wide, bracketing Scott McTominay and Stanislav Lobotka in midfield. Rasmus Hojlund was flanked by Antonio Vergara and Eljif Elmas up front.
Juve went on the attack straight away, and earned a corner within 16 seconds of kickoff. Both teams spent the first 10 minutes feeling each other out before the action started to pick up. Napoli actually made the first shot of the game, but it was quickly becoming clear that Juve were gaining the upper hand. They were first to every ball, winning every second ball, and they were starting to make things difficult for the Napoli defense. In the 19th minute Yildiz dropped a pass back to Thuram, who hit a beautiful shot to the far post that banged off the upright in the top corner.
That was the warning shot, and three minutes later the Bianconeri were in front.
McKennie made a fantastic play to send Yildiz down the left wing, but his cross fizzed just ahead of David before he could react. Conceição recovered it and recycled to Kalulu, whose cross resulted in a little bit of head tennis at the top of the Napoli box. The last of those headers found its way to Locatelli, who hit an outrageous, almost scorpion flick to David, who controlled with his chest and held Spinazzola off before slamming it past Meret.
It was almost 2-0 within minutes. Bremer came flying out of the back after winning the ball off Hojlund, taking it off Lobotka and leaving it for Yildiz to advance. The young Turk cut one step inside, looking for all the world like he was going to shoot, but then pushed the ball to a wide open Conceição. It looked like a goal was a foregone conclusion, but Buongiorno came out of nowhere to clear it off the line.
Juve continued to control the game as they searched for a second. Locatelli’s long-range shot was right at Meret, and in the dying moments of the half Thuram burst forward with a powerful run through multiple lines before his shot was blocked behind. A free kick in the last seconds of added time saw what looked like a foul by Vergara on David, but VAR declined to look at it and the teams went into the locker room.
David saw a shot saved seconds after the restart, but control of the ball immediately swung to the visitors, who for the first time got to dictate play. Or, more accurately, dictate where the ball went, because for the most part Juve were able to nullify anything Napoli threw at them with relative ease. Spinazzola had a shot blocked, and Hojlund was hassled into shooting wide on the followup.
Juve were holding well defensively, but the decision to sit back was still giving some flashbacks to certain other coaches who tested their luck a little too often in situations like this. But Spalletti was plotting. He sent on his first two substitutions at the hour mark, and shortly after that Juve started stepping out with more possession. It was as if he had been waiting for the depleted Napoli side to show their first signs of real fatigue before releasing the team back onto the attack.
Conte may have sensed that as well, and he soon sent on new signing Giovane for his Napoli debut, then Sam Beukema to shuffle some players around the formation. But tired legs make for tired minds, and that may have been why Juan Jesus made a colossal mistake, hitting a square pass into empty space in his own half. Fabio Miretti charged in to take advantage, and with his first touch of the game led Yildiz perfectly into the left channel. All the No. 10 needed to do was open up his hips and flick it past an onrushing Meret to double the lead and set himself a new career high in league goals with eight.
The energy immediately drained from the Napoli players after the goal. Juve managed to keep the ball in their half for much of the rest of the game, even though it was the Partenopei who were desperate. Nine minutes later the result was sealed by Filip Kostic, who had been playing out of position on the right wing since he was introduced in Spalletti’s first wave of subs. He overran a pass from Thuram but recovered quickly after it bounced off of Buongiorno, set himself, and rifled a low shot past Meret and into the bottom corner.
Miretti hesitated slightly when he was in a good position to add a fourth, and Lukaku had a chance in stoppage time to nab a consolation but shanked it wide, giving Di Gregorio an easy clean sheet and Juve a statement win as the top-four race takes shape.
