Juventus 2 – Lazio 2: Initial reaction and random observations

Juventus dominated for much of the night against Lazio. And yet it was the Bianconeri that needed a last-gasp goal to tie things up.

I don’t know what Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri will say at his post-match press conference. I probably won’t watch it. But I have a feeling that I know exactly how things were going to sound like — besides just the overall gravel that is trapped inside that man’s throat when he talks — if Lazio had actually beaten Juventus on Sunday night.

It probably would have gone a little something like this ….

Lazio smashed, Lazio grabbed and Lazio absolutely stole three points from the club — most definitely not the same squad by any means — that Sarri guided to their last title-winning season.

Thank goodness for Pierre Kalulu being his wonderful self once again.

If not for Kalulu’s header in the 96th minute (!!) to give Juventus a 2-2 draw with Lazio, it would have been about as frustrating of a loss as the Bianconeri have had in quite some time. And that is probably saying something considering what this club has done both this season and the last couple of years. But Lazio were looking completely on for a stunning win at the Allianz Stadium for much of Sunday, with just Kalulu and Weston McKennie’s goal before him being the reason as to why Luciano Spalletti’s squad are coming away with a point rather than seeing Lazio smash-and-grab their way to a win that would have put a cherry on top of a bad week for Juventus that saw them dumped out of the Coppa Italia just three days earlier in the same kind of fashion.

But even more of the case as compared to Thursday night in Bergamo, this was complete Juventus domination from the first minute — hell, the first 10 seconds when they could have easily had a penalty — to the very last when somehow Loïs Openda couldn’t convert either of the two glorious chances he had to get a winner.

Juventus recorded 34 shots. THIRTY-STINKIN-FOUR SHOTS. And yet, if it wasn’t for Kalulu’s game-tying header off a peach of a cross from second-half substitute Jérémie Boga, then this would have an absolute stunner of a result considering how much Juventus dominated both on the field and the stats.

Hell, it’s still a stunner in a lot of ways.

You can point to the two game-changing kind of defensive errors that Juventus made. You can look at all of the squandered chances that Juventus couldn’t convert into goals. You can look at the Lazio goalkeeper putting in a heroic performance. And you can look at the absolute shocker of a night that referee Marco Guida and the VAR crew had when not giving Juventus at least one penalty in the opening half. There was a whole lot going on — and a lot of it was coming even before Lazio struck in the second minute of first-half stoppage time to take an unexpected 1-0 lead.

The fact is, Juventus should have never been in that position.

Same goes for having to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat with Kalulu’s last-minute goal.

This was a game that Juventus both completely dominated and that Lazio basically perfectly executed for 90-plus minutes. The only thing that Sarri looked like his team was about to have the advantage in was the final score — something that would have only highlighted just how ineffective in front of goal Spalletti’s squad were.

So was avoiding a loss a good thing? Of course. One point better than none — especially when you factor in just how tight the race for the top four has been all season long and the fact that Roma are going through their own struggles at the moment. But in what was one of the biggest statistical advantages we’ve seen Juventus have all season long no matter who the manager is — but especially under Spalletti — they dropped points and were just one heroic header away from not getting anything.

After a loss in the Coppa Italia that had a lot of the same themes (although not to the extreme in which Sunday’s draw did), that is rightfully at least some level of concern. Then you remember who is coming up on the schedule …

OK, yeah, Juventus will have to play a lot better if they want to beat Inter in six days. Or advance to the Champions League Round of 16 later this month. Or just stay in the top four in Serie A where they currently are.

Just thank goodness for Kalulu, man, or else this performance might have looked even worse.