Italian giants Juventus succumbed to their second home defeat at Allianz Stadium this season, which put their title hopes in jeopardy.
In the 95th minute of the game, Domenico Berardi saw Maxime Lopez left alone on the left flank, with just two Juventus players defending their own half. The Frenchman didn’t fail his expectations as he aimed for the goal, striking the ball past Mattia Perin with a lovely chip. That was the moment Juventus’ title hopes started treading on thin ice.
The Old Lady outfit had previously lost at home against Empoli on matchday 2. Before that, the Italian giants had only succumbed to 15 defeats at the Allianz Stadium in the last 10 years.
Watching Juventus suffer defeat twice at home in two months is a new record set in the Serie A. But that’s not the only thing uncommon in the Juventus team this season as head coach Massimiliano Allegri, who was listed in the manager transfers, couldn’t even recognize his team.
Following their defeat, Allegri said to the media: “Juventus never suffered a goal in the 95th minute and it should never happen again. We were too frenetic even if the momentum was on our side after the draw.”
A Weston McKennie goal couldn’t help the Old Lady outfit pick up a point against Sassuolo, who had only claimed one victory at home before going against the Serie A giants.
Despite being on a nine-game unbeaten streak, which included their 1-0 victory against Chelsea and draws against inter and Milan, Juventus seemed to have lost that spark that made them dominate Italy for almost a decade.
These results couldn’t help them steer closer to Napoli or Milan who resides at the top of the Serie A table, which made their title hopes become a complicated task despite being in October.
When asked what Juventus’ goal this season was, Allegri didn’t even know how to reply as he said: “We must work on our mistakes, we can’t concede goals on counter-attacks. One point would have been important. It makes no sense to talk about objectives, we can’t look at the table now.”
This Juventus team seems to be having several developmental issues, which showed in their game against Sassuolo. The midfield quality is low compared to what a European giant would possess, and it’s not even enough to compete in the Serie A anymore.
Their lack of a top striker is also glaring now more than ever as they have only been able to score more than one goal in four games this campaign.
Ever since the opening of the 2021/22 season, Juventus have not been able to win a game by two goals, and every time they concede, they always find it hard to win.
However, the silver lining here is that this is not the first time Allegri had led the team to a terrible start to the season with the club. Following an away defeat at Sassuolo, Juventus were 11 points behind league leaders AS Roma at the time. They went on to win 25 games in a row with a team that reached the Champions League Final later that season.
But this isn’t 2015, Juventus doesn’t possess that same quality and even they manage to turn things around, their opponents will not willingly allow them to return to the title race.