One would think that the best defense in Serie A would be able to close out a game in which they are facing what has easily been the league’s worst attacking side. That’s what logic tells you. But, as we saw Sunday night, Juventus defense had been teetering for much of the second half, with Lecce very much giving Mattia Perin plenty to do after barely having to handle the ball in the opening 45 minutes.
After all that teetering, the dam finally broke.
And it happened in a way that just felt all so preventable.
A final sequence on the cusp of the final minute of stoppage time that displayed terrible execution all the way around allowed Lecce to get the goal in which they had been seeking for the entire second half. It canceled out Juventus’ first goal in 250 domestic minutes and sent the Bianconeri to a 1-1 draw, their third straight instance of dropped points coming out of the November international break. And it was a sequence that certainly will drive Juve coaches and supporters alike mad with how it all went down.
From Andrea Cambiaso — the man who gave Juve a 1-0 lead with his long-range shot in the 68th minute — turning the ball over as he looked to counter one last time and call more clock to Jonas Rouhi absolutely losing track of Ante Rebic on the subsequent counter as he steamed into the box, it was just all bad. With Rebic very much open at the back post, it felt like a fitting end for a second-half performance in which the worst attack in Serie A this season actually showed signs of life rather than producing next to nothing.
Just like in the last-minute loss to Stuttgart, I can’t help but think the same thing: Perin didn’t deserve any of this. Yet Juventus’ defense, at the worst possible time, reverted back to its worst self rather than how it has played for much of the 2024-25 season.
At the same time, though, this is just who Juve have been through the first 14 games of the Thiago Motta era. They have yet to find the true consistency that we were all hoping for after some of their impressive showings right out of the gate. Some of that has been because of injuries — you can’t just discount that. But a lot of it has been by their own doing — whether it’s the inability to add onto their leads like they did against Lecce or having one big late mistake at the back come back to absolutely haunt them.
It’s resulted in a team that is still unbeaten in Serie A, sure, but has two more draws (8) than wins (6) so far this season.
And it’s especially those draws against teams in the bottom half of the table — let alone in or around the relegation zone — that truly add plenty of salt in the wound no matter what point of the season it may be.
Periodi differenti, partite da contestualizzare, ma questi punti persi in campionato pesano come macigni
Empoli-Juve 0-0
Juve-Cagliari 1-1
Juve-Parma 2-2
Lecce-Juve 1-1
— Romeo Agresti (@romeoagresti) December 1, 2024
As Romeo points out in the above twee, that’s eight points dropped against Empoli, Cagliari, Parma and now Lecce rather than 12 points earned. It doesn’t matter who is available or try to put a positive spin on it, Juventus simply can’t afford to see those results against provincial sides continue to happen. Yet they are.
That’s why as much as you can say “Hey! Juventus are still unbeaten in the league!” it’s a little bit of a false flag. Yes, it’s not a loss, but boy dropping points in that kind of fashion against a club that has barely scored all season certainly feels like one.
It’s a gut punch. There’s no doubt about it.
It’s also the kind of result that never should have happened.
But at the same time, it’s a result that tells you Juventus needed to take advantage of their early opportunities better — like actually score rather than have two shots hit off the post, including one giant miss from Khephren Thuram — and actually control the game rather than have Lecce just hang around and hang around. And hang around they did as they pushed more and more men forward coming out of the break.
Juventus should have been up by a goal or two at least when they went into halftime. Instead, they were scoreless once again, a scoreline that has come all too familiar in the last few weeks. And it’s that kind of inability to finish that came back to haunt them dearly. As did the inability to close out a game in which they had to win for pretty much every reason that was out there.
Lecce are not good. Their only wins this season have come against other bad teams. So even with the Juve injury situation being the way it is, Motta’s squad just had to get the three points and head back to Turin any way they could have.
They didn’t, and the themes of draws just isn’t go away. It’s becoming a tiresome one, too.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
Thinking you today, Edoardo Bove. That’s just so scary.
I know it was mostly with youth sector players, but it was nice to see more than just a couple of subs listed on the bench again. As I type this out, I don’t know how many of them will actually be used, but an actual somewhat filled out bench is a change for the better.
Three out of four subs with numbers in the 40s or 50s kinda tells you all you need to know about who was available off the bench for Motta, huh?
I just don’t know why Cambiaso felt the need to go all YOLO and have such a bad turnover at that moment in time. You just can’t do that.
Good to see former Juventus Coppa Italia hero Hamza Rafia again. We’ll never forget that goal of his as random (yet important) as it was.
The xG on Khephren Thuram’s missed chance early on? Oh, just 0.84. I still don’t know how he missed that. Maybe he was channeling his inner Dusan Vlahovic. (Oh, was that mean? Couldn’t resist. It’s all in jest, folks.)
Of course, the first thought I had go through my head other than “How did Khephren miss that one?” was the simple notion of “I hope this isn’t one of those days.” I’m guessing I wasn’t the only person thinking that despite it being so early on in the proceedings.
And right after I got done typing out those previous thoughts about Thuram’s chance, there goes Francisco Conceição curling one towards the far post and hitting the woodwork. Sheesh.
It’s the 20th minute and Cambiaso was already closing in on 40 touchs. Sheesh.
Timothy Weah touches in the first half: 8.
Teun Koopmeiners touches in the first half: 21.
Mattia Perin touches in the first half: 21.
Federico Gatti should owe Manuel Locatelli a nice bottle of wine after cleaning up that big mistake just a couple of minutes into the second half.
Perin had virtually nothing to do in the first half. The first 12 minutes of the second half, though? He was forced into five saves — which, no matter the difficulty of them, didn’t feel like all that great of a development against a side that has scored all of six times all season.
Turns out, my worst fears about how the Juve defense was not matching their first-half performance was pretty much on point. If only they coulda changed my mind.
For as good as Nicolo Savona has been to start his career with Juventus’ senior team, the same can’t be said about Rouhi at the other fullback spot. Now we know why he hasn’t played as much as Savona, and it’s not like what he let happen in stoppage time is going to help his case for more playing time. That’s not how you earn a manager’s trust.
I’m still trying to figure out why Motta took Gatti out. Unless there’s something physically wrong with him, it’s not like Juventus have a midweek game coming up so managing minutes might not have been as much of a pressing matter as it could have been.
I’m still befuddled as to how Thuram missed that chance. Would have changed the game in so many ways. (Yes, that’s hindsight, but putting Lecce up against it all of about five minutes in definitely changes things.)
Lecce had as many shots as Juventus in the second half. Unacceptable.
If Napoli beat Roma on Monday night, they’re going to be nine points clear of Juventus. Remember when Juve were in sixth but two points behind Napoli just a few weeks ago? Ah, those were the days, my friends.
In conclusion, Lecce — the worst attacking team in the league — finished with a higher xG than Juventus on Sunday night. This is just frustrating as all hell, man.