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Poor finishing and bad timing doom Juventus at Napoli

March 4, 2024

A wasteful Juventus left the Maradonna wondering what might have been.

In comedy, the old adage is that timing is everything.

One could say that about most sports, as well, very much including soccer.

Joseph Nonge, an 18-year-old midfielder of great promise but all of two first team appearances who was forced into a big game against Napoli thanks to injuries and idiocy in the Juventus midfield, had some pretty crappy timing five minutes from time when he moved in on Victor Osimhen a fraction late and caught the Nigerian in the ankle with his studs.

A quick VAR review gave Napoli a deserved penalty kick — the first one Juve had given up all year. Even then, it looked like Juve might have been spared the worst when Wojciech Szczesny, one of the best penalty kick specialists in the world, parried a poor Osimhen penalty. But Szczesny got no help. Instead, three Napoli players flew toward the rebound before any Juve defenders came close, and Giacomo Raspadori slammed the ball into the roof of the net, the second time in two years he’d provided a late goal to beat Juventus.

But in fairness to Nonge, his mistake shouldn’t have been so decisive in the 2-1 loss to Napoli. Juventus ought to have had a significant edge on their hosts by this point. But they had wasted chance after chance after chance to that point before the young Belgian’s fateful tackle. In the first half alone, Dusan Vlahovic had missed two glorious chances and hit the post, though in fairness that last one would have been an amazing goal had it been a few centimeters further inside. Samuel Iling-Junior ballooned one shot over the bar and failed to get much purchase on another that was met with an easy save. Andrea Cambiaso blazed over from point-blank range at the start of the second half.

It was very much a mirror image of Juve’s win over Napoli in the reverse fixture, when the Partenopei had missed multiple chances to score before Juve put away one of their only real opportunities. This time around, it was Juve whose timing simply wasn’t there, and they ultimately paid for it.

Massimiliano Allegri was facing down a serious selection crisis in the middle of the park. Apart from the dual suspensions of Nicolo Fagioli and Paul Pogba — the latter of whom had his doping suspension confirmed for the maximum four years midweek — Adrien Rabiot and Weston McKennie missed the game after dislocating a toe and shoulder, respectively, in last week’s game against Frosinone. Elsewhere, he was missing Moise Kean, Mattia De Sciglio, and Mattia Perin, while Danilo was only fit to come off the bench. His 3-5-2 was therefore reliant on some players at the bottom of the depth chart. Szczesny was protected by Daniele Rugani, Bremer, and Alex Sandro. Cambiaso started on the right wing, while Iling-Junior finally displaced the struggling Filip Kostic on the left. Carlos Alcaraz was given his first Juventus start in midfield, while Fabio Miretti returned from some time in the wilderness to play on the other side of Manuel Locatelli. Federico Chiesa shook off a worrying knock in training to start alongside Vlahovic.

Napoli entered the game on their third manager of the year, with Francesco Calzona taking on their last 2 12 months of their season before managing Slovakia at the Euros this summer. He sent out a 4-3-3 formation, anchored by Alex Meret in goal. Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Juan Jesus, Amir Rrahmani, and Mathias Olivera made up the back line, while Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Stansilav Lobotka, and Hamed Traore manned the midfield. Matteo Politano and Khvicha Kvaratshkelia flanked Osimhen in their attacking trident.

Juve looked dangerous early, but Alcaraz got a ball stuck in his feet on a feed from Iling-Junior in the first few minutes. A few bad giveaways in their own half were smothered by the defense, then with 10 minutes on the clock came the first real missed opportunity when Chiesa pressed the ball off of Olivera and found Vlahovic free behind Rrahmani, but the striker’s header back across the grain skimmed just wide of the post.

Napoli kept the majority of the possession as the game settled into a rhythm, but Juve were, in a pleasant deviation from the norm, the ones who were creating the best chances. Iling took a good feed from Miretti and tried to surprise Meret at the near post, but the Italy international held the ball well. Napoli’s first real opportunities came not long after, as Di Lorenzo fired over from inside the box after a scuff bounced into his path, while Szczesny forced himself into a double save when he spilled a Politano free kick into the path of Anguissa, whose follow-up required a smother.

Just after the half-hour mark another good chance went begging when Cambiaso fizzed a ball into the box that got past Chiesa but landed at Iling-Junior’s feet, only for the young Englishman to fire into the crowd. Three minutes later, Vlahovic came agonizingly close to breaking the deadlock when got behind the defense and latched on to a through ball from Chiesa. Meret charged out, and Vlahovic delivered one of his trademark chips from just outside the corner of the 6-yard box. The ball floated over the stranded keeper but bounced off the upright on the far side, leaving Vlahovic wondering what more he had to do to put the ball into the net.

SSC Napoli v Juventus FC - Serie A TIM

Not long after, Napoli had another cluster of chances. Kvaratshkelia forced a save from Szczesny on a low shot before a sequence of balls across the goalmouth ended with Olivera flicking toward the far post from an angle on the left, but Sandro was there to head it clear.

Soon, though, Juve’s profligacy in front of goal would come back to haunt them. When Di Lorenzo sent in a cross in the 43rd minute, Bremer could only get a weak head to the ball, flicking it only into the path of Kvaratshkelia, who had been left open by Cambiaso. The wing-back tried to charge the Georgian down, but his excellent volley took a slight deflection off him, giving the shot enough of a deviation to sneak it through Szczesny’s hands at the near post. After all that huffing and puffing, Juve were behind just before the break.

They really should’ve gone into the locker rooms level. Less than two minutes after the opener, Rugani came way up to press Traore, who coughed the ball up right to Vlahovic — whose first-time shot from 18 yards somehow flew over for his most egregious miss of the night.

More missed chances came on the same sequence eight minutes into the second half. Chiesa made a neat move to get past Politano before dragging back to Alcaraz in the box. The young midfielder took a touch that was much too heavy and had the ball taken away, but only as far as Locatelli, whose first-touch pass found Cambiaso in the right channel. But the wing-back blazed over, leaving Juve wondering just what they had to do to put the ball into Meret’s net.

Napoli began to exert a larger measure of control as the second period wore on. They barely threatened to actually add to their lead — it too until the 78th minute for them to register a shot — but they kept such a firm hold of things that Juve were hardly able to mount a fruitful attack of their own.

That is until the 81st minute, when a seemingly innocuous move, first from Nonge to Chiesa, then a one-two between Chiesa and Alcaraz, put Juve’s No. 7 a step into the box on the right side. Out of nowhere, Chiesa unleashed a worm-burner that nutmegged Olivera and skittered across Meret and into the bottom corner to tie the score and, for the moment, silence the crowd at the Maradonna.

SSC Napoli v Juventus FC - Serie A TIM

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