Juventus Turin’s season is not going well. This has already been evident in the last few months, weeks and, as a recent highlight, this Wednesday’s fatal Coppa Italia exit against underdog Empoli.
In the Serie A, FC Empoli is fighting for survival, is currently below the bottom line and has recently been beaten four times in a row – with only one own goal.
But anyone who thought that favorite Juventus would play cat and mouse with the Tuscans was mistaken. Although the Old Lady, who was recently knocked out of the Champions League play-offs in dramatic fashion (1-3 after extra time in Eindhoven), got off to a good start and had a great chance to go 1-0 up in the second minute with a hasty lob from former Stuttgart player Gonzalez, the Bianconeri lacked drive overall. The necessary drive.
The neck blow
To make matters worse, Empoli went ahead out of nowhere – in minute 24. Because the Turin defense did not attack with enough urgency during this phase, Maleh got the ball after being passed by Bacci. In a central position in front of the opposing goal, the scorer dribbled into a shooting position because no one had really tackled him. A crashing shot to the left of the post followed, which was absolutely unstoppable for Di Gregorio’s replacement Perin.
The Old Lady, coached by Thiago Motta, was unable to recover from this in the first 45 minutes, despite the measure of playing with new signing Kolo Muani and Vlahovic up front for once this evening. But that was not to bear fruit. Rather, FCE pro Konaté twice missed the 2-0 – first with an inaccurate low shot (41′) and then with bad luck on the post (45+1′).
First the glory of Turin, then weak nerves twice
After a chorus of booing at the break, the Juve players at least showed themselves to be willing to play again. Vlahovic, for example, announced his arrival with a strong free-kick, thus directly firing up his own audience again (52′). With jokers like Yildiz and Francisco Conceicao, the offense was further strengthened. But they couldn’t get more than the deserved 1-1, even though it was a tough game. Thuram, after a pass from Weah, outwitted Henderson with a rarely seen world-class trick before the Frenchman shot in from a narrow angle to make it 1-1 (66′).
Ultimately, however, this only led to a penalty shootout (no extra time in this phase of the Coppa Italia), in which the Turin team lost their nerve. Right at the start, Vlahovic, who is under pressure anyway and could be sold, fired the ball over in a hurry. Later, Yildiz also failed to beat keeper Vasquez with a shot that was much too inaccurate. Meanwhile, all four Empoli shooters scored – Marianucci was the last to score, securing his team’s place in the Coppa Italia semi-finals. And dealt the Old Lady another blow in an already modest season.
