It’s Juve’s Vlahovic. The great champion who was missing, who who knows, maybe he can change even a season. It is not though a different Juveat least for the moment, it is always Juve’s Merry: defense, sometimes own catenaccioand counterattack, first do not take them then all the rest, that in Europe it is not enough almost never. And so she is still not a stronger Juve, not even of the VillarrealSpanish second-tier team, with great European attitude, it’s true, but with many limits, which was not to be scary. Especially not after a immediate advantage which seemed to have put the first leg of these round of 16 downhill. Instead it becomes a pain, much more than what the final score says: 1-1good for morale and maybe even for the qualificationand, less for the growth of the team.
However, the extraordinary European debut of Dusan Vlahovic. A predestined, we have known for a long time, and he has proved it once more. Scoring in his first match in the Champions League, but what about his first ball touched in the Champions League, after just 32 seconds. Thanks to a deep throw that culpably catches the Spanish rearguard unprepared, but then he puts in a lot of his physical technique, chest stop e crossroad at the corner. A small sample of him being champion, which was not enough to win a victory within reach, for how he had put himself.
The whole match is conditioned by this beautiful and heavy net. Allegri’s tactical move was to side with a three-way defense, which then with Cuadrado and De Sciglio on the outside often becomes five. If the plan already seemed clear from reading the formations, let alone after the immediate advantage. Juve closes almost by choice, to defend very low as his coach likes, leaving only Vlahovic in front like reference to leave quickly.
Hit cold, Villarreal begins to grind ball possession. He also puts the Bianconeri in serious difficulty on at least two occasions: Lo Celso a sure hit is printed on the intersection, Danjuma he looks for the eurogol of heel but finds Szczesny. The truth, however, is that Allegri’s (or perhaps only Vlahovic’s) greatest merit was stealing their opponents favorite game planwhich is certainly not of offensive maneuver, but of contrasts, dirty balls and restarts. Without the weight of Gerard Morenoinjured and great absent of the match, the hosts have to rely on the flickers of the outsiders, but pay duty in the middle of the area. Juve, on the other hand, by loosening the pace, keeps the opponent’s fury at bay and goes to rest risking little.
Just to reiterate the concept, at the beginning of the second half Allegri returns with pure Bonucci in the field, instead of alex sandro: defender by defender, but increasingly defensive. An error of Locatelli triggers Alberto Moreno’s offensive, a bit like in the first half Danilo he had made on the occasion of the wood of Lo Celso. The demonstration that Villarreal is terribly a unease in having to play the game in these conditions. Nonetheless, he still manages to get her back.
For its own merits, but also for faults of Juve. One above all: not only trusting one’s defense, but almost being pleased with it, which in the long run never pays. After ten minutes of forcing Spanish, apparently sterile but exhausting, comes the error: one collective inattention of all rear, and individual of Rabiotwhich completely loses the cut of Equalcaught all alone in the middle of the area from a comfortable passage of Capuacold to beat Szczesny.
Villarreal deserved the draw and above all the possibility of playing the game he wanted. In the bullfight, in the equilibrium now the Spaniards are exalted. Juve are also lucky, because the referee Siebert thanks to a killer intervention by the unfortunate Rabiot, who deserved the rosso direct. In the moment of greatest difficulty, Vlahovic even tries to win it alonewith a left-handed corner pulled out practically out of nowhere, almost perfect only because this time the goalkeeper’s hand arrives Rollers. He ends up in trouble, with Allegri screaming on the sidelines and him who, without being too proud of it, bring home a positive result, but not too much since there is no longer the rule of double goals away. TO Torino will serve Moreover.