Juventus 1 - Cagliari 1: Delayed reaction and random observations

Ah, OK. It proved to be one of those games for Juventus on Sunday afternoon.

You know exactly what I mean when I say that. The kind where Juventus drop points when they shouldn’t have even been in the kind of situation to do so. The kind of game we’ve seen so much over the years where they let the opposition — no matter if it’s in a derby or against a provincial side — hang around and have one late-game call be the thing that results in three points turning into one point and a whole lot of frustration coming about.

That is what we saw from Juventus in their 1-1 draw at the Allianz Stadium to go into the October international break. Juve let Cagliari, a team just outside of the relegation zone to begin this new Serie A season, hang around following Dusan Vlahovic’s goal early in the first half, and the result was that one moment was all we needed to see a potential win disappear. That’s why Cagliari’s 88th-minute penalty as a result of more Douglas Luiz actions in the box ended up turning a slim lead into a tie game rather than being a mere afterthought in a comfortable Juventus win.

Simple as it seems, if Juve finish their chances, a late penalty means nothing other than the scoreless streak against Serie A opposition to begin the season is over.

But because the likes of Vlahovic, Teun Koopmeiners and others were, let’s just say, rather ineffective in front of goal outside of the 15th-minute penalty, it was that PK call in favor of Cagliari that let another potential win slip away.

Of course, many will point to Vlahovic’s big miss 10 minutes before the PK that tied things up as one of the big turning points of Sunday’s proceedings, a clear-cut opportunity with the keeper scrambling that should have been put away 100 times out of 100 by just about everybody on the Juventus roster, let alone their highest-paid player and top goal scoring threat.

It was a collective as to why Juventus dropped points Sunday. Vlahovic was not great in front of goal. Same goes for a lot of his teammates. Douglas Luiz shouldn’t have gone clattering into Roberto Piccoli with just a few minutes of regular time to go. It all added up — and because of it Juventus dropped points when it looked like they were going to get an ugly win over a likely relegation battler.

So as much as you might want to throw out the old Max Allegri line of “these things happen in football” it’s pretty much just a case of Juventus can really only look at themselves as to why they dropped points on this day.

The sheer volume of quality scoring opportunities should have had them up by a couple of goals at the half. Their ineffectiveness in front of goal only continued in the second half. And then one or two moments of just sheer dips of concentration allowed Cagliari to actually put something on goal.

Juve should have never dropped points against Cagliari — especially on their home turf in Turin. And yet, they did, and that is the most frustrating part of it all.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS Boy am I sure glad that I didn’t wake up at 3:30 in the morning for that. (Also, forgetting to post the game thread and then also sleeping right through my alarm to post the game thread happened, so there’s the excuse for that, folks. Apologies!) We were so close to having a nice little run of good things — outside of Bremer getting hurt, of course — over the course of the last eight days. I blame these damn yellow kits. I, personally, liked it better when Juventus didn’t allow goals to league opposition. I sure hope you feel the same way. Vlahovic’s penalty to give Juventus a 1-0 lead was good. The celebration was even better and made me smile because Bremer is such a good dude: Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images And if only Koopmeiners had scored that shot immediately after the restart following Vlahovic’s goal. Man, that would have been a 1-2 punch to Cagliari’s gut that I’m not sure they would have been able to recover from. Same goes for the shot that was saved just a few minutes later. Teun just needs that breakthrough because he’s getting more and more chances to score now. Juventus’ first half consisted of 77% possession, 12 shots in total and the only they had to show for it was a Vlahovic goal from the penalty spot. Yes, there were a few great saves in there, but they just needed to be better in front of goal plain and simple. They could have put this game away before the half, and it just didn’t happen. Always good to see Simone Scuffet, otherwise known as one of those mid-2010s “New Gianluigi Buffon” picks, once again playing against Juventus. (I wrote that last sentence before I saw Scuffet made a great save on a deflected shot and then saw how many saves he ended up making against Juventus. Good times.) Juventus finished with 703 passes. Cagliari finished with 237 passes. Pierre Kalulu touched the ball 122 times! That’s A LOT! Wasn’t prepared for a random camera shot of Paul Pogba in the stadium for the first time in a long time. Looks as though the reduced doping ban means we’ll be seeing a little more of him even though Juventus are still thinking of terminating his contract. Yerry MIna seems like he’s the kind of player who never stops chirping at an opposing striker from the opening whistle until the final whistle. Just a complete gnat in your ear. So, that second yellow to Francisco Conceição for simulation seemed harsh. Was he trying to draw the penalty? Well, yeah, probably. But there’s also clearly a hand on his shoulder and contact being made. It just seemed a little harsh, but I’m just one guy. The more I see Nicolo Savona at right back, the more I want to see of him there. He’s getting starts in big European games already and clearly has the back of Thiago Motta at such a young age. Having him and Andrea Cambiaso as the fullbacks going forward under Motta seems like a nice little development. I still am thinking Douglas Luiz will come good and he will be a quality signing for Juventus. But these momentary lapses and everything seem to be a big reason why Motta has not entrusted him with more minutes. But the more it continues, the more heat there will start to be on a guy who was valued at such a high price tag over the summer. Cagliari xG on Sunday: 1.12 Dusan Vlahovic xG on Sunday: 1.82 Boy oh boy is that miss in the 76th minute going to haunt a whole lot of people during the international break. Sure that Vlahovic is thinking about it because you just can’t miss that. Personally was not a fan of waking up to that final score alert. Was definitely not a fan of watching it all play out on delay. Just a frustrating afternoon all the way around for Juventus.