Juventus 1 - Atalanta 1: Initial reaction and random observations

Yesterday at 06:40 PM

A draw? Those never happen!

Juventus' game in hand arrived Tuesday night, with a very difficult trip to Bergamo awaiting Thiago Motta's squad amidst a run of six draws in the last seven games.

Folks, you'll never guess how things went at the Gewiss Stadium.

Juventus' first away Serie A fixture of 2025 ended like so many of those in the final months of 2024. Juve got the lead, but they couldn't hold onto it, as Matteo Retegui's 78th-minute header just in front of a suddenly stranded Nicolo Savona saw Atalanta pull even for what eventually became a 1-1 draw. It was the 13th time Juventus have draw a game domestically this season and marked the 13th and 14th points Motta's squad have dropped from a winning position — a trend that is becoming much more of a common occurrence as the calendar has flipped from 2024 to 2025.

It's all just completely baffling at this point.

Doesn't matter who it is against. It's just baffling.

Maybe because one the fact of it, a draw in Bergamo against an Atalanta team that has played so damn well for much of the season is a result you'll take more often than not. It's totally OK to be like "they're good, coulda won, coulda lost, but we'll take the point and head home." Within a singular moment without thinking of anything else that Juventus has done this season, a draw in Bergamo isn't bad — especially against this iteration of La Dea.

But the reality is that this isn't even close to the first time we've felt this way so far this season. And because so many draws have stacked up so tall you'd have them looking like some sort of tall task at a pancake eating contest, you can't just think about things in a singular kind of way.

Not when you now have 13 draws in your first 20 league games of a season.

Not when you're playing a direct rival for the top four for the first time this season and trying to do anything to try and prevent said 13th draw of the season from taking place.

Or, as our favorite Mexican City-based cohort Sergio said just after the final whistle: "It doesn't matter if you're a title contender or a relegation battler, we will find you and we will draw with you."

Truer words, I don't think they've ever been spoken.

Juventus did a lot right against Atalanta on Tuesday night. I truly feel that way. They weathered the early Atalanta storm and didn't concede a goal. It certainly wasn't pretty at times, with individual errors and the inability to connect passes as Atalanta pressed like madmen and proved once again that Juve struggle against a team that presses high. But as the first half went on — and especially in the last 15 minutes or so before halftime — things turned for the better and Juventus were the more dangerous team.

That improved play carried into a second half that was — holy crap — a whole lot more wide open than the opening 45 minutes. Juventus, as they have done lately, grabbed the opening goal thanks to Pierre Kalulu's end-to-end run and equally impressive assist from Weston McKennie. It was just the third time all season that Atalanta conceded the opening goal.

All three of those previous three times, La Dea came back to pick up all three points.

There wouldn't be a fourth instance of something like that. But Juventus, trying like hell to defend their 1-0 lead. couldn't hang onto said lead — again.

Because of it, it's the latest instance of this team doing some good things but then having one singular mistake coming back to haunt them and cost them points. Were Juve perfect in the second half outside of Savona losing Retegui in the box? Of course not. If not for a couple of big saves from Michele Di Gregorio and a Koopmeiners goal line clearance, this very much could have been Juve's first Serie A loss of the season.

But it wasn't. It was a draw. Because they're all draws at this point. At least it feels that way.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Salute to the producer of this broadcast to go from the shot of the goal line technology replay of the ball barely still being on the line and then the cut to Marco Carnesecchi with a giant Cheshire Cat-like smile on his face. That's just brilliant work on the replay button.
• Little did we know, Kalulu would get his revenge all of about a minute later. So that was cool.
• If only Juventus could hold a lead. If only. If only, if only if only.
• Also would be nice if one of those goal line technology calls actually went Juventus' way. That's not the first time they've been literal millimeters away from a goal only for a wonder save to prevent them from scoring. It's just another reason why this season just has awful luck on top of everything else.
• How in the hell has Giorgio Scalvini come back so quickly from his torn ACL? Can we do anything to maybe get Bremer to have the same kind of recovery time? Maybe?
• It took about five minutes into his appearance off the bench for Atalanta — which he does pretty much most of the team since moving to Bergamo — for Lazar Samardzic to show why there was such a big fan club of his amongst people on this blog.
• Weston McKennie started Tuesday night's game as the false 9. He then dropped back and played as the makeshift No. 10 as Teun Koopmeiners played further up the field. He also played out wide on the right in the second half, adding to the list of positions that he played over the course of his 90 minutes on the field. What I'm getting at is that dude has, even more than last season, shown he is maybe the best Swiss army knife in Serie A. Or at least one of the best. Dude just does whatever is asked of him and does it well much of the time.
• Atalanta supporters throwing stuff at Koopmeiners as he takes corners. Very nice.
• This game proved that Koopmeiners just can't be a false nine going forward. Sure, he can do some of the tricks and some of the flicks to combine with his teammates, but he simply doesn't have the speed like Nico Gonzalez does to try and hurt the opposing defense when there's a ball hit over the top. Yet Juve kept trying it.
• If only Kenan Yildiz passed to Samuel Mbangula rather than going for all the glory and trying to get it past Carnesecchi at the far post. If only.
• But them's the breaks — especially this season. The margins are just so fine.
• Kalulu was so good in defense. Just so good, man. I don't even want to think about where this Juve team would be without considering there's also no Bremer since early October.
• Hey, Nicolo Fagioli, nice to see ya!
• Andrea Cambiaso wasn't great against Atalanta, but at least it's nice to know his ankle is good enough — with the help of some pain killers, of course — that he's healthy enough to play a full 90 minutes again.
• Juventus shots: 17
• Atalanta shots: 17
• Juventus did finish with a better xG, so there's that, I guess. Sure woulda been nice to see them score more than one, though. That could have meant a win. Or at least the chance to blow another lead. I don't know at this point.
• So many Carnesecchi saves. Just so many of them. And only one goal.
• Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw. Draw.
• That's me writing out how many draws Juventus have in Serie A this season.
• I don't know what else there is to say, folks. After 13 draws within a 20-game span, there's only so much to say that you haven't already. And right now, I'm pretty much running on empty. Have a nice day if you can.