Lower than 50 days in the past, Juventus headed into the Stadio Diego Armando Maradonna with an enormous likelihood to tug an upset towards defending champions Napoli (barf). The Partenopei had been decimated by accidents, and Juve had been beginning to pull themselves collectively underneath the brand new administration of Luciano Spalletti. However Juve blew that chance, with Spalletti selecting the precise fallacious time to experiment with Juventus’ entrance line, permitting even a depleted Napoli aspect to dominate the primary half and in the end pull out a 2-1 win.
Quick ahead to Sunday, and Juventus was introduced with a remarkably comparable scenario. Napoli arrived on the Allianz Stadium nonetheless coping with a monstrous harm checklist. Antonio Conte solely had six outfield gamers obtainable to him. Two had been academy call-ups, one was a brand new signing that had arrived lower than 24 hours earlier, and one was coming off an harm and wouldn’t have many minutes in his legs. Juve additionally got here into the sport performing a lot better, and way more assured, than the staff that had misplaced in Naples.
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The consequence was fairly completely different.
Juve dominated the sport in a manner that most likely wasn’t anticipated. They allowed just one shot heading in the right direction your complete sport, and utterly overpowered the threadbare Napoli midfield. They took the lead within the first half, and it was easy poor fortune that they weren’t up 3-0 going into the break.
However they rectified that by the top of the match. After letting Napoli throw their punches for the primary 20 minutes of the half, they reasserted management, and within the last 13 minutes of the sport scored twice to seal the deal and ship Napoli to their heaviest league defeat of the 12 months. The consequence pulled the Bianconeri inside a degree of the Azzurri for fourth place, who are actually even with Roma after their 1-1 draw with AC Milan later within the night time.
Spalletti was nonetheless lacking Dusan Vlahovic and Daniele Rugani, however made just one change to . Michele Di Gregorio began in objective behind what began out as a 3-4-2-1. Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Lloyd Kelly screened him in protection, with Weston McKennie and Andrea Cambiaso appearing as wing-backs. Manuel Locatelli and Khephren Thuram made up the midfield pivot, whereas Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz backed up Jonathan David in assault.
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It might be simpler to checklist who was obtainable to Conte. His checklist of lacking gamers was really astounding. Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Matteo Politano, David Neres, Billy Gilmour, Amir Rrahmani, and Pasquale Mazzocchi all got here into the day trip of motion, Romelu Lukaku was within the squad for the primary time since struggling a long-term harm within the fall, and Lorenzo Lucca and Noa Lang — each summer time signings — had been bought on. The day earlier than the sport, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic suffered an harm that pressured him from the lineup as effectively. Alex Meret began his first sport since September behind a 3-4-3 formation. Juan Jesus, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and Alessandro Buongiorno performed in protection. Miguel Gutiérrez and Leonardo Spinazzola had been out vast, bracketing Scott McTominay and Stanislav Lobotka in midfield. Rasmus Hojlund was flanked by Antonio Vergara and Eljif Elmas up entrance.
Juve went on the assault right away, and earned a nook inside 16 seconds of kickoff. Each groups spent the primary 10 minutes feeling one another out earlier than the motion began to select up. Napoli truly made the primary shot of the sport, however it was rapidly changing into clear that Juve had been gaining the higher hand. They had been first to each ball, profitable each second ball, and so they had been beginning to make issues tough for the Napoli protection. Within the nineteenth minute Yildiz dropped a cross again to Thuram, who hit a wonderful shot to the far submit that banged off the upright within the prime nook.
That was the warning shot, and three minutes later the Bianconeri had been in entrance.
McKennie made a improbable play to ship Yildiz down the left wing, however his cross fizzed simply forward of David earlier than he might react. Conceição recovered it and recycled to Kalulu, whose cross resulted in somewhat little bit of head tennis on the prime of the Napoli field. The final of these headers discovered its method to Locatelli, who hit an outrageous, virtually scorpion flick to David, who managed together with his chest and held Spinazzola off earlier than slamming it previous Meret.
It was virtually 2-0 inside minutes. Bremer got here flying out of the again after profitable the ball off Hojlund, taking it off Lobotka and leaving it for Yildiz to advance. The younger Turk minimize one step inside, in search of all of the world like he was going to shoot, however then pushed the ball to a large open Conceição. It seemed like a objective was a foregone conclusion, however Buongiorno got here out of nowhere to clear it off the road.
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Juve continued to manage the sport as they looked for a second. Locatelli’s long-range shot was proper at Meret, and within the dying moments of the half Thuram burst ahead with a robust run by means of a number of traces earlier than his shot was blocked behind. A free kick within the final seconds of added time noticed what seemed like a foul by Vergara on David, however VAR declined to have a look at it and the groups went into the locker room.
David noticed a shot saved seconds after the restart, however management of the ball instantly swung to the guests, who for the primary time obtained to dictate play. Or, extra precisely, dictate the place the ball went, as a result of for essentially the most half Juve had been capable of nullify something Napoli threw at them with relative ease. Spinazzola had a shot blocked, and Hojlund was hassled into capturing vast on the followup.
Juve had been holding effectively defensively, however the choice to take a seat again was nonetheless giving some flashbacks to sure different coaches who examined their luck somewhat too typically in conditions like this. However Spalletti was plotting. He despatched on his first two substitutions on the hour mark, and shortly after that Juve began stepping out with extra possession. It was as if he had been ready for the depleted Napoli aspect to point out their first indicators of actual fatigue earlier than releasing the staff again onto the assault.
Conte could have sensed that as effectively, and he quickly despatched on new signing Giovane for his Napoli debut, then Sam Beukema to shuffle some gamers across the formation. However drained legs make for drained minds, and that will have been why Juan Jesus made a colossal mistake, hitting a sq. cross into empty house in his personal half. Fabio Miretti charged in to take benefit, and together with his first contact of the sport led Yildiz completely into the left channel. All of the No. 10 wanted to do was open up his hips and flick it previous an onrushing Meret to double the lead and set himself a brand new profession excessive in league targets with eight.
The power instantly drained from the Napoli gamers after the objective. Juve managed to maintain the ball of their half for a lot of the remainder of the sport, regardless that it was the Partenopei who had been determined. 9 minutes later the consequence was sealed by Filip Kostic, who had been enjoying out of place on the correct wing since he was launched in Spalletti’s first wave of subs. He overran a cross from Thuram however recovered rapidly after it bounced off of Buongiorno, set himself, and rifled a low shot previous Meret and into the underside nook.
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Miretti hesitated barely when he was in a great place so as to add a fourth, and Lukaku had an opportunity in stoppage time to nab a comfort however shanked it vast, giving Di Gregorio a straightforward clear sheet and Juve an announcement win because the top-four race takes form.