A thoroughly disappointing week for Juventus highlighted by Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure for Manchester United suffered another upset on Saturday evening. For the first time in their top-flight history, Empoli took all three points away from Turin, adding insult to injury to an already frustrating situation in Massimilano Allegri’s camp.
A narrow 1-0 victory, courtesy of Leonardo Mancuso’s 20th-minute strike, was enough for Empoli to equal the entire winning tally from their last Serie A stint. Meanwhile, Juventus have gone winless in their opening two top-flight fixtures for only the third time in 52 seasons!
After a disappointing 2-2 draw away to Udinese on Matchday 1, Empoli’s arrival to Turin looked like a prime opportunity for Juventus to get going in the new season. The Tuscan minnows had lost 11 of their 12 previous visits to Juventus in Serie A, with their last top-flight goal in Turin dating back to 2006.
However, Empoli managed to defy the odds and put Juventus to the sword, recording their first-ever away Serie A win against the record-time Italian champions. It is fair to say that Gli Azzurri worked their socks off at the Allianz Stadium, but the hosts’ nightmarish performance gave them an upper hand.
It’s been only a day since Cristiano Ronaldo left Turin to return to Manchester United, and Juventus have already felt the absence of the 36-year-old superstar. Without their last season’s top scorer, I Bianconeri looked clueless in the front third against newly-promoted Empoli.
Despite using all of his assets, Massimiliano Allegri failed to find the recipe to break down the resilient visitors. From Federico Chiesa through Paulo Dybala to Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Bernardeschi, the Italian manager fielded his firepower against a side that conceded three first-half goals to Lazio last time out, but to no avail.
Though one can argue it was one of those nights where the favorite can’t crush the outsider, the overall impression is that Juventus failed to shrug off the stress following Ronaldo’s sudden exit. No one can take the fighting spirit and defensive fortitude away from Empoli’s showing at the Allianz Stadium. However, there’s a genuine feeling that I Bianconeri could and should have done more.
During the post-match interview, Allegri offered his view of the situation.
“The lads had started strong, they conceded at the first mistake playing out, then got too hasty. We must have the patience to take it calmly, play as a team, and not try to resolve things as individuals,” he said, as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB.
“We need to work on our solidity, but these two slip-ups will inevitably do us good. This is a strong squad, it has values, and gradually, they will emerge.
“Empoli leave a lot of spaces on the wings, but the things we really did badly were technical errors because we were frenetic. We can’t assume we will take the lead and control every game, we need the calm that a great team has, knowing we can overturn it.“