Stop me if you’ve heard that one before: Bologna makes Juventus look toothless for a significant portion of the match, and lead by multiple goals in the second half. Juventus hulk up and get back into things, ultimately winning the game on a marvelous goal by an up-and-coming young attacker.
The parallels between the 3-3 thriller that Juventus played in the days following Massimiliano Allegri’s dismissal in May and the 2-2 draw that the Old Lady pulled out out of their hats Saturday night are hard to miss. For the majority of the match, Juve were thoroughly outplayed. Bologna employed a ferocious press that threw them completely out of their game. They could barely keep the ball for more than two or three touches before turning it over, heaping pressure on a defense that lost yet another key piece to an injury within 15 minutes. It was no surprise when Bologna went ahead on the half-hour, and even less of a surprise when another bad giveaway let them double their lead early in the second half.
But Juve’s response called back to that rainy day in May. Teun Koopmeiners finally opened his Juventus account just after the hour, triggering an uptick in Juve’s energy levels. Bologna still tried to play on the front foot, which eventually bit them in the rear in stoppage time when Dusan Vlahovic dashed downfield on a textbook counterattack and pulled back for Samuel Mbangula, who unleashed an incredible strike that flew into the top corner, evoking some of Alessandro Del Piero’s best goals — fitting since Il Pinturicchio was at the desk with the rest of the Paramount people as they visited the Allianz.
Unlike some recent results, this was a draw that was very much a point stolen as opposed to two points lost, but as impressive as Juve’s fight back was, the club displayed some concerning issues that they’ll do well to address going forward.
Thiago Motta got a trio of players back from the injury malestrom for his first game against his old club, with Vlahovic being joined by Nicolò Savona and Vasilije Adzic. But he was still missing the likes of Weston McKennie, Nico Gonzalez, Douglas Luiz, and Arkadiusz Milik, with Bremer and Juan Cabal the long-term absentees. Motta made a few changes to his 4-2-3-1, but surprisingly goalkeeper wasn’t among them, as Mattia Perin started in goal for the second time in a row. Danilo, Federico Gatti, Pierre Kalulu, and Andrea Cambiaso screened him, while Nicolò Fagioli joined Manuel Locatelli in midfield. Francisco Conceição, Koopmeiners, and Timothy Weah supported Vlahovic in attack.
Bologna had replaced Motta with Vincenzo Italiano over the summer, and he had installed the possession-based system that put him in two Conference League finals at Fiorentina. Riccardo Orsolini, Michel Aebeicher, Charalampos Lykogiannis, Oussama El Azzouzi, and Nicolò Cambiaghi were out. He mirrored his predecessor’s formation, with Lukasz Skorupski in goal. Emil Holm, Jhon Lukumí, Sam Beukema, and Juan Miranda started in defense. Tommaso Pobega and Remo Frueler manned the midfield, while Dan Ndoye, Jens Odgaard, and Benjamín Dominguez lined up behind Santiago Castro in attack.
Bologna’s press was in full swing from the minute the opening whistle blew. It forced one or two early mistakes, but Juve broke the press in the second minute and sent Fagioli charging into a completely empty swath of grass. There were options on either side of him, but the midfielder was clearly looking to impress in his first start in more than a month and took it himself, seeing his shot harmlessly blocked by the defender in front of him.
That proved to be one of the only times in the first half that Juve managed to get out of the press. Then the first sign that the night wasn’t going to be fantastic came not too much later, when Cambiaso stuck out his left foot to block a powerful shot by Ndoye. As the teams were setting up for the corner kick, he ended up taking a seat on the turf. Replay quickly showed why: Ndoye’s shot had been so hard it had bent Cambiaso’s foot back.
He tried to soldier on, but it was clear he was compromised, and by the 13th minute he was back on the ground again, forcing Motta to go to his still-short bench and send on Jonas Rouhi to replace him. In between, Ndoye made more mischief, taking a chested pass from Castro and bashing the ball off the base of the post.
Juventus v Bologna - Serie A Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
In the 18th minute, Weah was whistled for a foul on the right-side edge of the box, and Miranda tried to surprise Perin at the near post with a shot, but Weah made up for it by getting a glancing touch to it with his head in the wall, diverting it just enough to see it fly over the bar with millimeters to spare. Kalulu then got very lucky when he brought Odgaard down as he burst through the middle, only avoiding a straight red for a last-man foul because it was deemed that Odgaard hadn’t controlled the ball.
Bologna was dominating the match, and they got a deserved payoff for their performance on the half-hour, when Holm put a perfect ball into the right channel and Ndoye took advantage Locatelli ball-watching to slip behind him to latch on and slam it into the roof of the net.
Four minutes later, Juve nearly had a lightning response, but Fagioli couldn’t keep his shot down after Conceição’s nifty pullback from the byline.
Bologna didn’t make much real danger as the half went on, but were still on the attack on the press, completely disrupting Juve’s ability to build from the back. Even when they did manage to create some danger, their luck was rotten. Five minutes before the break, Vlahovic made an excellent give-and-go with Koopmeiners, but got the ball caught in his feet at the crucial moment and didn’t even get a shot away. The Dutchman set the striker up again two minutes into stoppage time with a delicate chip into the channel, and this time Vlahovic connected with a volley, but Skorupski got down quickly and made a top-shelf save to keep his team up at the half.
The second half started much the way the first ended, and frustration was starting to boil over. Some of it was aimed at their own performance, but referee Matteo Marchetti had been getting under the Bianconeri’s skin the whole game with some questionable officiating, and six minutes into the second half Motta could no longer contain himself and berated the official after another soft foul call on Rouhi, earning him a yellow card that was quickly followed by a straight red from the official. Perhaps disorganized after the dismissal of their manager, Juve coughed up a second goal within two minutes. An aimless ball forward from Locatelli to no one in particular was sent straight back into the attacking third by Beukuma, and then redirected by a brilliant back-heel flick from Castro into the path of Pobega, who chipped it over Perin’s shoulder to double the Rossoblu’s lead.
Bologna very nearly ended the game within minutes, but Perin got down to stop Dominguez’s long shot. Vlahovic was again given a great feed by Koopmeiners, but this time it was Lucumí who stymied him with a sliding challenge.
Bologna looked to have the game in hand until just after he hour mark. In what may have been Juve’s prettiest passage of play all day, Gatti lashed a pass to Fagioli, who found Conceição out wide. The diminutive Portuguese immediately drew a double team, giving Danilo all sorts of space on the overlap. The veteran sent a fantastic ball across the box that was met by Koopmeiners, who poked home with his left foot to finally open up his account for Juventus.
Juventus v Bologna - Serie A Photo by Image Photo Agency/Getty Images
The goal got the crowd back into the game, in no small part thanks to Koopmeiners, who spent the time before the kickoff revving them up. The coaching team on the bench looked to capitalize on the momentum and sent Kenan Yildiz and Marcus Thuram into the game, dropping Koopmeiners into the double pivot and having Yildiz play in the hole.
Bologna still kept up with their press, which continued to cause Juve problems when they tried to build at the back. But Juve were still pushing the action, controlling almost two-thirds of the possession after that first goal. What they needed was to pose more of a threat to the goal. The only two shots the team had attempted were an effort from Weah that hit Yildiz on its way through and an off-balance header by Khephren Thuram that couldn’t be kept down.
Minutes after coming on, Mbangula went down near the byline under contact from Holm, but Marchetti waved it away. Some frustration manifested in a minor scuffle between Vlahovic and Lucumí, which saw both of them get yellow cards.
As the clock ticked away, it looked like Juve’s comeback attempt would fizzle—especially after a corner kick in the last minute of regular time was taken short but eventually passed all the way back to the defense without the ball ever being moved toward the goal.
And then, out of nowhere, Fino alla Fine happened.
It started with a loose pass from Miranda. It was just behind his intended target, and Savona, who had come on with Mbangula 10 minutes earlier, jumped it, then released Vlahovic downfield. He beat Lucumí to it, then kept his head and waited for help to arrive. When a large lane opened for him to pull it back to an unmarked Mbangula, he took it. The young Belgian took one touch to settle it then hit a screaming curler into the top corner to level the score and share the spoils.
Juventus v Bologna - Serie A Photo by Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
LE PAGELLE
MATTIA PERIN - 5.5. It’s hard to say a keeper could do better with a guy coming clean through to him like that, but I wonder whether he could have done a little bit better on Pobega’s goal. The real factor in this rating, though, is what he did — or couldn’t do — with his feet. He completed just 68.6 percent of his passes, and you have to wonder if the team would have handled the press better with Michele Di Gregorio back there.
DANILO - 6. Made three tackles, an interception, and two clearances on the flank. Wasn’t a massive factor going forward, but his one big contribution was a very, very big one, assisting on Koopmeiners’ goal.
PIERRE KALULU - 5.5. Had decent counting stats but felt a little off in terms of positioning and was pulled around at times, especially on that second goal.
FEDERICO GATTI - 5.5. Same issues as Kalulu in terms of his positioning, it just seemed off against Bologna.
ANDREA CAMBIASO - NR. Hopefully his sprained ankle isn’t too bad, because losing him in the back cost the team a lot of creativity.
NICOLÒ FAGIOLI - 5. Didn’t look controlled and was trying to do too much at times, especially on that early break. Couldn’t help break the Bologna press.
MANUEL LOCATELLI - 4. He was at large fault for both Bologna goals. For the first, he was laser-focused on the ball and paid absolutely no attention to where Ndoye was; for the second his clearance/pass/I-don’t-know-what-that-was-supposed-to-be to nowhere was the direct cause of the goal. The 69.1 percent pass completion numbers didn’t look great, either.
FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO - 6. Did his best on the wing and made a couple moments of danger, but he’s starting to draw a lot of attention and the coaching staff needs to make him a less obvious target.
TEUN KOOPMEINERS - 7. Probably his best game in a Juve shirt so far. He had a game-high five key passes, finally broke his duck with his goal, and also made three tackles. Also looked good when he came out of the pivot late on. This is a performance he needs to build on.
TIMOTHY WEAH - 5. Made three tackles, but you don’t want him putting up defensive numbers. Couldn’t do much on the left side at all against the press.
DUSAN VLAHOVIC - 6. Looked off for a lot of the game, although he was a little unlucky with Skorupski’s save and Lucumí’s block. But the way he played on the equalizer was fantastic, and the assist salvaged his rating. Hopefully he won’t take too long finding his feet.
SUBS
JONAS ROUHI - 5. Remains behind the pace. He made three tackles, but made just as many mistakes, especially overcommitting to the ball and allowing people to carry it past him.
KENAN YILDIZ - 6. Had a key pass and played well out of the trequartista position, causing some havoc around the box.
KHEPHREN THURAM - 6. Felt like the midfield was a little more solid with him in there. He’s becoming essential in there.
NICOLO SAVONA - NR. Stepped out and made the interception that started the final counterattack.
SAMUEL MBANGULA - NR. I mean, what a freaking goal that was. He was starting to flag after his fast start, but he showed he’s still a potent option out wide.
MANAGER ANALYSIS
There were some issues here for Motta. First and foremost, the struggles against the press.
Juve have been ok in dealing with the press this season, but there were real struggles in there today. Locatelli having a bad day was a huge part of it, but like I mentioned in the ratings, it’s worth wondering whether starting Perin was a good idea. Motta likes to rotate people as much as possible, and that includes keepers, but as good as Perin is, ball-playing has been his major weakness his entire career. Italiano is known for using an unrelenting press. The decision to chose Perin over Di Gregorio for this game was a strange one. The combination of Locatelli and Fagioli in midfield, while probably a good one in a lot of cases, also seemed like it wasn’t set up the best for the press, as Thuram’s physicality was of great use in terms of dealing with it.
Juventus v Bologna - Serie A Photo by sportinfoto/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
The over-reliance on the wing in attack is also an ongoing issue, although at times it seemed that there were signs that a few more attacks were headed down the middle. But Juve weren’t going to attack much at all when they were penned in like that under the press. With building up from the back a major part of Motta’s system, getting around presses like this is going to be essential, and has to be worked on ASAP.
LOOKING AHEAD
Wednesday brings what might be the biggest game of the Champions League for Juve when they welcome Manchester City to Turin. While City have enough quality to right themselves in a matter of moments, they’ve only won one of their last nine in all competitions, including a 2-2 draw against a relegation-threatened Crystal Palace team that forced them to come from behind twice. If there’s a time to get them, it’s now.
After City, Venezia make a trip to the Allianz, followed by Juve’s Coppa Italia debut against Cagliari and then a trip to Monza.