Juventus 4 - Cagliari 0: Initial reaction and random observations

Today at 07:00 PM

Look at all of those pretty goals being scored.

For much of the opening 45 minutes of Tuesday night's Coppa Italia Round of 16 tie against Cagliari, things were looking ... for the lack of a better term ... not so great. Juventus' attack, one that is certainly under a massive microscope these days, had yet to test Cagliari goalkeeper Simone Scuffet all that much, with the overwhelming majority of the 12 shots recorded not on target.

Then the 44th minute arrived. As did Dusan Vlahovic showing what a strong man he is.

And, what felt like somewhat out of nowhere, Vlahovic — the man who helped Juve salvage a point at the Allianz just 72 hours earlier — broke the deadlock that certainly broke the stranglehold that was hovering over the Bianconeri attack.

Vlahovic's goal right on the doorstep of halftime proved to be the kick in the backside that Juventus needed to do what we've seen so many times before at this stage of the Coppa Italia, with a second-half onslaught paving the way for a 4-0 romp over Cagliari that propelled Motta's squad into the quarterfinals where Empoli now awaits. Three Juventus summer signings — Teun Koopmeiners, Francisco Conceição and Nico Gonzalez — ensured that what happened against Cagliari earlier this season wasn't going to repeat itself and put Juve in danger of any sort of Coppa Italia silliness.

No risking of a draw with that second-half performance.

None of that.

Thankfully. That's what we all needed after the last few weekends. (And much of this season based on how many draws Juventus have recorded through the first 16 league games.)

This proved to be Juventus doing what they haven't done a lot lately outside of their win over Manchester City a week ago — they not only pushed forward and got a second goal, but they were able to put Cagliari away with distance to spare. There was no risk of seeing Cagliari getting back into the game after Koopmeiners' brilliant curling free kick made it 2-0 early in the second half.

That has been one of Juventus' biggest issues so far this season — and especially one that has happened against smaller clubs and potential relegation battlers domestically. Look no further than the last time Juve stepped on the field in Turin against Venezia — they couldn't put the 20th-place visitors away, and it came back to bite them big time, with only Vlahovic's stoppage-time penalty saving them from their first loss of the season.

Not every game against a team in the bottom half of the table is going to be like this, but this sure was a pleasant change from what Juventus has been doing for much of the 2024-25 season. To put a team away and do it with room to spare is what Thiago Motta wants to see more of from his team, and for them to actually go out and do it was a nice change.

Just like many of us said last week when Juve beat Manchester City, it's one game but hopefully it's something that can happen much more often in the future. It's one step, and we all know that another relegation battler is awaiting Juve over the weekend in Serie A, but this should be a useful tool for Motta's squad to show them that they can (and should) do this more often.

Now it's just about putting it into practice on a much more consistent basis.

Hopefully. Because if not, then the one trophy that Juve are defending this season will be lifted by somebody else come the springtime.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Pre-game thought No. 1: Just when you thought Juventus didn't have any options in defense, there goes Thiago Motta giving us the option of Manuel Locatelli at center back that he floated out there during one of his first pre-match press conferences.
• Pre-game thought No. 2: And just for an added bonus, there's Weston McKennie playing fullback. I think it's safe to say that I didn't have that one on my bingo card. Well played, Motta.
• Post-game thought No. 1: The Juventus defense that had as much natural midfielders as natural defenders playing recorded the shutout. How about that one?! Although, there were some interesting moments. Like, you know, the opening minute.
• Nearly conceding after all of about 30 seconds — not great!
• Seeing Cagliari record four shots within the first 45 seconds — also not great.
• After that opening flurry of shots from Cagliari, Michele Di Gregorio had to make just one save. Thankfully that save was not as difficult as the first save he had to make on the night.
• Also, interesting to see Di Gregorio in there over Mattia Perin considering the Coppa Italia has been Perin's competition the last few years. As far as we know, Perin is healthy, so maybe we'll see him playing from the start against Monza over the weekend.
• I don't know about you guys, Locatelli looked pretty solid in the center of defense. (Insert your joke about "He should be used to it with how deep he's played the last couple of years" joke right here because I know you're thinking it, too.)
• Who led Juventus in key passes? Locatelli and McKennie, the two midfielders who started in defense. Just like we all predicted, right?
• Also good: Pierre Kalulu.
• Also good (and also French): Khephren Thuram.
• With the experimenting of Koopmeiners playing alongside Thuram in the double pivot, you could clearly see that the Dutchman was always going to be the one playing more advanced. The heat maps confirm it, and it's something that I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more often for the simple notion of getting Kenan Yildiz more central. And now that Motta has the options to move some folks around, there's finally the chance for some rotation and tinkering.
• Speaking of a certain Dutchman, the angle from behind Koopmeiners as he took his free kick that proceeded to rocket off his left foot absolutely ruled. That's why you're able to see just how impossible of a shot it was to stop.
• Little did we know that Koopmeiners' goal would have some competition for the best goal of the night. Welcome back, Nico. it's nice to see you out there balling once again.
• To the surprise of nobody who has followed Juventus this season, I feel like it's safe to say that Conceição has replaced Federico Chiesa as the guy who will make you chuckle simply because of all of his overly exaggerated facial expressions. They're just so amusing.
• The good thing is that Conceição is also really fun to watch with what he does on the field, so he provides plenty of entertainment with all of his shifty movement as well as his desire to cover his face with his jersey after he messes up sometimes.
• Combined shots between Vlahovic and Conceição: 13
• Total shots from Cagliari as a team: 13
• Nicolo Fagioli getting zero minutes of playing time in the Coppa Italia opener when other players got some run Tuesday night shows you where he currently is on the depth chart.
• Nicolo Savona was the only Juventus player to not have a rating of at least 7 on Sofascore. What a slacker that kid is, huh? (Kidding. We like you, Nico. Keep being good.)
• Juventus finished with 27 shots! Been a while since we had one of those games.
• So now we go from Cagliari to Empoli to reach the Coppa semifinals. No Fiorentina is a nice development, so we thank Empoli for the upset in the Tuscan Derby a couple weeks ago.
• Just don't look at what Juventus did against Empoli earlier this season. (Then again, if Juve want to avenge that draw against Empoli in the same kind of fashion that they did against Cagliari on Tuesday night, I wouldn't be opposed to that happening again.)