This has certainly been a very promising half-season for Juventus, who stand atop Serie A with a healthy lead. Their Champions League foray has also been successful, with some initial lackluster performances making way for some key victories that allowed the club to win their group. In the final front, the Coppa Italia, Juventus have advanced through their first match against Cagliari, but now face A.C. Milan on January 9th in what should be a very exciting match.
However, at the start of the season such success was not necessarily obvious. On paper, Juventus were (and still are) the Scudetto favorites. However, the summer suspension of Antonio Conte and Angelo Alessio led some to believe that Juventus could be usurped by a team with a proper coach. Conte’s initial substitute coach, Massimo Carrerra, wanted to quash any such talk.
Carrera did indeed do such a quashing, as he led Juventus to a 4-2 victory over Napoli in the Super Coppa, his first competitive match in charge. Napoli saw two red cards, and Juventus only took the lead once Napoli got into trouble, but nonetheless Carrerra had won a trophy in his competitive coaching debut.
Two weeks later Juventus began their Serie A campaign with a match against Parma where they won 2-0.. The highlight of the match was undoubtedly the fine form of Kwadwo Asamoah, new Juventus man and even newer left wing back. The next few Serie A matches continued the good form, with Juve beating Udinese (4-1) and Genoa (3-1), although Genoa did take the lead first with a goal from Ciro Immobile, who is co-owned by Juventus.
Those few matches were just appetizers for the big Champions League match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on September 19th. Juventus would come back from a 2-0 deficit, with goals from Arturo Vidal and Fabio Quagliarella seeing Juve to a draw.
The next few matches saw some great league results, but some frustrating Champions League results. On the one hand, Juventus recorded a smashing 4-1 victory over Zdenek Zeman’s Roma, taking a 3-0 lead after only twenty minutes. Juve also beat Napoli, who were supposed to be the anti-Juve, 2-0 with Paul Pogba scoring a memorable goal to put the icing on Martin Caceres’ game winning goal.
Now, on the other hand, Juve had two consecutive draws in their Champions League group stage matches. The first draw, against Shahktar Donestk, was somewhat excusable. Shahktar are a good team, Juventus Stadium was sparsely attended (the Ultras were protesting high ticket prices), and Juventus actually had to come back from 1-0 down. However the second draw, against FC Nordsjælland, was an awful result for Juventus. The Danish side took a surprise 1-0 lead, and it took a Mirko Vucinic substitution and miracle goal to get just one point for Juve.
That second 1-1 draw was the beginning of the closest thing this side has seen to a “dip in form.” Juve beat both Bologna and Catania with several bad officiating decisions benefiting Juventus. It was just a symptom of the greater trend of poor officiating in Serie A this season.
The dip in form was formalized when Inter beat Juve 3-1 at Juventus Stadium. It was their first loss this season, their first loss in Juventus Stadium, and their first loss in 49 matches. It was perhaps the most disappointing night of Antonio Conte’s time at Juventus, but the loss spurred Juve on to some great results in the following matches.
In the first post-derby match, Juve smashed FC Nordsjælland 4-0. Days later, they embarrassed Pescara 6-1, with Fabio Quagliarella scoring three goals. A 0-0 draw against Lazio was a disappointing bump in the road, but Juve beating Chelsea 3-0 in the following match stemmed any disappointment from the Lazio draw. The 3-0 victory was critical for Juve’s Champions League campaign, bringing Juve from desperate to qualify after their two straight draws to battling with Shahktar for first place.
Of course all of this good news was dampened by A.C. Milan’s shock 1-0 victory over Juve at the San Siro. Milan’s lone goal came from a Robinho penalty kick, off a foul that arguably never happened. Regardless, Milan were the better team, and they totally surprised Juve with their strong play.
Just as the loss to Inter spurred a run of good form, the Milan loss preceded Juve winning their final six matches before the winter break. One of these matches was against Shahktar Donestk, and this 1-0 win secured Juve’s first place finish in their group.
Another one of those six wins was a 3-0 drubbing of local rivals Torino, which was an unsurprising but satisfying result especially as it came in the first match after the Milan loss.
Juve’s final match of the first half, a 3-1 win over Cagliari, was notable for two things. The first was their last minute comeback from 1-0 down, and the second was the doppietta scored by Alessandro Matri, who had only scored one prior goal this season.
The possible re-emergence of Matri is one of the things to watch for in 2013 for Juve. New signing Federico Peluso, signed for depth as Asamoah leaves for the African Cup of Nations and Giorgio Chiellini sits sidelined by injury until February at least, will be another player to watch for as he tries to make himself into more than a bench player for Juve. Finally, Juve’s knockout round fixture against Celtic stands out as obviously Juve’s most important matches in the near future.
Some (including Jose Mourinho) have said that Juventus are dark horses for the Champions League this year, but a win against Celtic is the next step for Antonio Conte and his boys if they want to be dark horses. Celtic, who upset Barcelona in the group stages, could be a very tough opponent for Juventus. The only thing that’s certain is that two great matches will be had.
…….Juve, don’t stop, put the pedal to the metal!!!