So, let me know if you’ve heard this one over the last couple of weeks.
Juventus, fresh off a midweek win in a cup competition, return to Serie A looking to end their run of consecutive draws in league play coming out of the November international break. Considering we’re very much now well into December, that is not a very good thing — at all. The opposition is one that Juventus will be heavily favored against considering the simple fact that they are sitting in the relegation zone and have a very small number of wins to their name so far this season.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Of course, there are a couple of differences. Instead of a win over English giants Manchester City in the Champions League, Juventus’ most recent showing was a 4-0 victory over in the Coppa Italia Round of 16. And rather than facing a team at the weekend that is sitting in dead freakin’ last in the Serie A table, this time around it’s ... well, the team that is sitting right above Venezia. That would be 19th-place Venezia, who host Juventus at the U-Power Stadium on Sunday night before everybody gets a few days off to celebrate Christmas — and hopefully be in a good mood while they open their presents because a lengthy streak of draws has finally come to an end.
Because of Juve’s frustrating draw with Venezia last weekend, it means the two sides at the bottom of the Serie A table are level on 10 points, with the only thing keeping Alessandro Nesta’s Monza out of the cellar being their goal differential advantage.
But a lot like when Venezia rolled into Turin just like the fog at the Allianz Stadium last Saturday night, that’s one of the few things going for Monza at the moment.
Monza are one of two Serie A clubs who have yet to record a win on their home ground so far this season, with the other being Genoa, who are now managed by Patrick Vieira. Nesta’s four months in charge at Monza have seen his squad win just once in the first 16 games, and one of those other few saving graces is that they are tied for the second-most amount of draws in Serie A with seven, only behind Juventus’ staggering number of 10.
They’re one of the lowest-scoring teams in the league, trailing only Empoli and Lecce. They’ve got one of the lowest xG totals in the league, trailing only Empoli. And, probably unsurprisingly with this string of numbers, Monza are ahead of only Empoli when it comes to shots attempted per game.
Besides that, it’s hard to find a lot of positives for a club that has just one win on the season — which came two months ago on Oct. 21 against a Hellas Verona side that sits just a few points ahead of them and right outside the relegation zone.
So, for Juventus, it’s pretty simple: You’re once again coming off a midweek victory and now turning your attention back to Serie A where your opponent will be a team that is desperate for anything to go right and will be fighting like all hell to try and make something happen. It’s an opportunity to both build off the midweek win and also put an end to this string of draws that have seen Juve go from two points off the Serie A leaders to now nine points behind first-place Atalanta heading into Matchday 17.
And because of Juve recording four straight draws in Serie A coming out of the November international break, they will officially hit the midway point of the season with more draws than wins. That’s not exactly where you want to be no matter what stage of the project that we’re at.
So let’s just hope that Juventus don’t repeat what happened a week ago because it would just add even more frustration from the outside in a season that is getting filled with plenty of just that due to all of the draws within the first 16 league fixtures.
Or else an early Christmas present will resemble coal more than something along the lines of three points — and I think I know which one Juventus actually want to see before heading back to Turin late Sunday night.
TEAM NEWS
Because we can’t have nice things, there was injury news coming out of the midweek Coppa Italia win over Cagliari: Timothy Weah. The American winger will likely be out until the new year with what was described as a “low-grade” hamstring injury.
The good injury news is that Andrea Cambiaso, who missed the past three games with a sprained ankle, is back in the matchday squad and has made the trip over to Monza. Whether he returns to the starting lineup or starts on the bench still remains to be seen.
That is somewhat because of the fact that Danilo, who has played left back since Cambiaso first injured his ankle, has stayed back in Turin despite being included in the traveling squad to Monza. The 33-year-old Brazilian is himself dealing with a sprained ankle and will be assessed Sunday morning before joining his teammates or staying home.
Douglas Luiz will miss a second straight game and 11th overall this season, with Motta saying “Luiz’s situation is different to the other players who are unavailable.”
The other injured players are pretty much all of the long-term ones: Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arek Milik. Jonas Rouhi is also out injured with the muscle injury he picked up in training a couple of weeks ago.
Motta is not thinking about the beginning of the winter transfer market, which is just a little under two weeks away. “We are focused on Monza and entirely in sync with the club. It’s not about gifts when the transfer market begins. Monza is all we think about,” Motta said.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
The last time Juventus and Monza faced one another, Michele Di Gregorio was walking over to the visiting fans’ section at the Allianz Stadium to salute the traveling supporters one final time before he finalized his move to Turin.
On Sunday, he is about to face the club in which he made his name at for the first time since his summer transfer from Monza to Juventus. Therefore, this matchup will certainly have a unique set of emotions attached to it for Juventus’ starting goalkeeper.
Michele Di Gregorio of Juventus Fc celebrates at the end... Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images
Facing your former club — especially after you get the big move to a big club like Juventus for the first time in your career — is always going to be a special thing to experience. For Di Gregorio, the first trip back to Monza is certainly one of those cases. But it may be even the more special because of what he achieved during his time with the Biancorossi.
I say that because Di Gregorio arrived at Monza in 2020, having already spent the three previous seasons out on loan in Serie B. Monza is where he found both continuity and the chance to play top flight football for the first time in his career. It’s where he went from bouncing around in Serie B to being named the best goalkeeper in Serie A for the 2023-24 season. And as Monza earned promotion and subsequently secured their status in Serie A for the next couple of years, Di Gregorio proved to be a huge part of that.
There will likely be a whirlwind of emotions as Di Gregorio steps out for pre-game warmups and sees the crowd at the U-Power for the first time. Same goes for right as the opening whistle is out to be sounded out. It’s an opponent in which the 27-year-old Di Gregorio holds special to his heart, and that was very much evident by the salute to the fans he put forward back in the spring.
We’re now seven months removed from that and, obviously, he’s on the other side of the Juventus-Monza matchup now. That comes with a very different level of responsibility, too.
Of course, considering Motta has been quite happy to rotate his goalkeepers and try to get Mattia Perin a start at least once every couple of weeks, there’s always the chance that Di Gregorio isn’t playing against his former side from the opening whistle. But, if there ever was a fixture that he would like to be in goal for, it’s most certainly this one.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024.
Where: U-Power Stadium, Monza, 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: TLN (Canada).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (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.