For the first time in a few weeks, Juventus got themselves a win on Wednesday night. It wasn’t just a win in a big game — it was simply a win, something that they hadn’t recorded in over a month after posting four straight draws coming out of the November international break.
It was a refreshing performance for a number of reasons, but the simple fact of getting a win — and a very big and important one at that — was a change for the better.
But, like so many times before, we are now shifting our focus from what Juventus did against Manchester City over to the game following a big (European) win — and you can’t help but wonder what’s next.
And as much as Man City are very much not in a vintage Manchester City kind of form at the current moment, it’s pretty easy to say that the team next up on Juventus’ schedule is very much not like the team they just faced in the Champions League.
Rather than the four-time defending Premier League champions with one of the best managers to ever walk the sidelines of the sport, the next team to roll into Allianz Stadium on Saturday night during Juve’s four-game homestand has all of two wins to their name so far this season. Venezia, back in Serie A after a two-year absence, sit at the very bottom of the league table, giving Juventus a potentially soft landing after a very thrilling yet physically taxing win over Manchester City just three days ago.
In terms of sheer talent from the opposition, it’s quite the difference to go from one of the most valuable squads in the world to what Venezia will roll out against Juventus.
And it’s safe to say that Juventus will very much not be perceived as any sort of underdog like many thought they were when they lined up against Manchester City a couple of days ago.
Instead, it’s basically going to be the exact opposition against a Venezia side that has recorded all of two points in their first eight games away from home this season.
For the second straight season, Eusebio Di Francesco looks like he’s in for quite the relegation fight. Although, unlike last season when he was with Frosinone, there has not been a huge fall after a red-hot start to the season. Instead, Venezia lost three out of their first four games, got their first win, lost another three of their next four, won again, and have now lost four out of their last five.
So, the win-once-every-five-games trend has not continued, but Venezia did at least get a point with last weekend’s 2-2 draw against fellow relegation battlers Como the last time out.
This is very much the kind of form that you would expect from a relegation battler. And with two wins to their name through the first 15 games of the 2024-25 season, this is why Venezia are very much at the bottom of the Serie A table.
Coming off such an emotional and well-played victory over Manchester City, the objective is simple for Juventus as they play their third straight game at the Allianz: avoid disaster. So many of Juve’s domestic draws this season have been against clubs in which they really have no business dropping points against. Look no further than what happened a couple of weeks ago against Lecce, a team that had previously scored just six goals all season. There’s the draw against Cagliari, the draw against Parma, the draw against Empoli. These are all games in which Juventus should have won, but didn’t.
For all of the good things against Manchester City that Juventus went out and did, dropping points against the worst team in Serie A through the opening 15 matchdays would be a serious letdown. Juventus are starting to get healthy, starting to give their manager options to even do a little bit of squad rotation, and they’ve got a relatively soft schedule until the final fixture of 2024 when they face red-hot Fiorentina.
This is the time to get some momentum going, and using the win over Manchester City as the jumping off point seems like a very good thing to try and accomplish.
TEAM NEWS
After being sent off in the second half of last weekend’s draw against Bologna, Juve manager Thiago Motta will serve a one-game suspension on Saturday night. As a result, Motta’s top assistant, Alexandre Hugeux, will patrol the sidelines against Venezia.
The big injury news is that Nico Gonzalez — who has been out since early October with a muscle injury suffered in the comeback win over RB Leipzig — is back in the squad Venezia’s vis to Turin, according to Motta at his pre-match press conference. Gonzalez has missed 13 games and over 70 days due to his Oct. 2 injury.
One of the players hoping to be back for this weekend’s visit from Venezia, Andrea Cambiaso, will not be available despite returning to partial training earlier in the week. With a Coppa Italia Round of 16 tie on Tuesday night, Cambiaso’s sprained ankle probably won’t be ready to go until at least Juve’s final fixture before Christmas.
With Cambiaso and Gonzalez both back in the fold, Juventus’ injury list is down to five players, with two of those being season-ending knee injuries: Cambiaso, Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal Arek Milik and Jonas Rouhi, who Motta said has picked up some sort of injury in training.
Two Juventus players, Manuel Locatelli and Nicolo Fagioli, are one yellow card away from a suspension. Be wary indeed.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Saturday may be the 22nd birthday of Juventus’ new favorite Portuguese short king, it is the player who has taken up shop on the other wing most of the time with whom we will chat about. That’s because when you’re facing the team that’s sitting dead last in the table and has the third-worst defense Serie A has to offer, it probably has your attackers thinking good thoughts.
And we all know how much a certain young Turkiye attacker likes to crush the soul of opposing defenders whenever it is humanly possible.
Kenan Yildiz of Juventus FC celebrates after scoring a goal... Photo by Fabrizio Carabelli/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
It was almost a year ago that Di Francesco, then the manager of a Frosinone side that was tumbling down the Serie A table, saw Kenan Yildiz score his first senior level goal by doing what he does best — using his incredible foot skills to split a pair of defenders in quick fashion and find the back of the net. It was, basically, Yildiz’s skillset in a nutshell, and it proved a glimpse of what he’s capable of even when it’s operating in relatively tight spaces.
But here’s the thing with Yildiz’s performances of late: Since his stunning brace as a second-half substitute against Inter Milan on Oct. 27 at the San Siro, he has one goal and one assist in nine appearances in all competitions. That’s as many goals as he recorded with Turkiye during the last international break.
So while we all love the skills and the tricks and the bamboozling of opposing defenders, it’s not like Yildiz is lighting things up the last six weeks when it comes to goals and assists.
The hope, of course, is that facing a team that has a goal differential of minus-14 through their first 15 games of the season will be a sort of get-right game for Yildiz and the rest of the Juventus attack. And like the team as a whole, the hope is also that Yildiz can build off the good things he did against Manchester City midweek and keep the good times going when facing the worst team in the league as we head toward the middle of December.
We know that De Francesco won’t want to see Yildiz do a repeat of what he did against the last team he managed a year ago. But that certainly would be a positive development — and for a whole host of reasons considering how Juve’s struggled to consistently score goals this season.
MATCH INFO
When: Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada); Sky Sport Uno, Sky Sport 251, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 4K (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, Foxsports.com, FOX Sports app (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.