The Cardiff nightmare came back and haunted The Old Lady.
On that night, Juventus played well in the first half. The team ran on the front foot from the first whistle and disrupted Real Madrid’s rhythm. Mario Mandzukic’s acrobatic effort was well-deserved for the Italian side, which was caught on a break on a rare chance that Madrid created.
Then, the 15-minute of fury happened. We will never know what happened in the dressing room that caused Dani Alves and Leonardo Bonucci to lose their tempers on the biggest game of the season, nor why Massimilano Allegri decided to alter Juventus’s approach.
The team settled for a deep defensive line in the second half, which in turn killed all momentum it built in the first 45 minutes. Real Madrid was able to push up and dominated the midfield. Juventus couldn’t able to advance the ball past the halfway line, and got demolished.
On Tuesday night, it took 10 minutes for Juventus to think about grinding the result.
Gonzalo Higuain’s quick-fire brace was thought to all but settle the two-legged tie. Tottenham Hotspurs was too naive to leave the Argentinian unmarked before Ben Davies showed his inexperience playing in a European knockout tie with a poor defensive effort.
While the away team looked lost in its first Champions League knockout tie of this squad generation, the home team became too conservative.
Allegri believed two goals were enough to seal the match. He instructed the team to play a low defensive line, blocking Tottenham’s movement in the midfield.
On paper, it was a no-brainer. Juventus made its way to the Final last season with its tremendous defensive efforts. The problem was, it was able to deliver perfect sucker punches, catching the opponents on the break.
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On Tuesday, it didn’t work.
Douglas Costa and Federico Bernadeschi were instructed to run at will whenever Juventus initiated counter-attacking chances. Mario Mandzukic and Higuain waited up front, holding the ball to buy times for the pacey wingers to make their way to the box. The midfield duos of Miralem Pjanic and Sami Khedira were mere spectators during Juventus’s attack.
Predictably, Tottenham played a high defensive line to compromise with its high-pressing game. With Juventus settling for a deep defensive line, Tottenham was able to push higher to initiate counter-presses whenever it lost possession.
This is where Juventus suddenly became a rookie. Playing a bang-bang game when the team was pushed deep wasn’t going to end well. Per whoscored.com, Juventus only completed 71 percent of its passes. Khedira only got 19 touches and completed 13 passes. Costa conceded possession seven times. For no fewer than three to four occasions, Higuain and Mandzukic were often left isolated when the ball came to their feet.
Allegri’s decision to take off Khedira also left a big question mark. Although the German was invisible most of the time, subbing in Rodrigo Bentacur in a life-to-life change didn’t help the home team. With Mousa Dembele, who completed 99 passes, running the midfield, what Juventus needed was a player in the midfield who can slow down the tempo and allowed Juventus some additional time in possession. Mandzukic, who was having a knock at the time, was a good consideration.
Spurs played decent offensively, but its pressing game wasn’t too effective. Higuain’s missed chance in the first half was a good indicator of high fragile the away team’s pressing block was. Slowing down the tempo could have caused the away team to be more spontaneous to press, which in turn created the space for Costa and Bernadeschi to run into.
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It could have been 4-0 in the first half if Higuain was able to convert his chances, one of which was a penalty. Instead, Juventus had to settle for a 2-2 draw at home after Gianluigi Buffon’s error. Juventus’s two trips to the final in the past three seasons were accompanied by its resilience, but it went missing on Tuesday night.
Kudos to Spurs for not being cracked after conceding two early goals, but Juventus had to blame nobody but itself for throwing away the glorious chance to seal the tie within the first 90 minutes.