Juventus and Club Brugge can't muster serious offense in goalless draw

Today at 01:45 AM

Neither team managed any fireworks in Belgium, setting up multiple scenarios for next week's league phase finale.

After the weekend win over AC Milan, there was one big question about Juventus: could they repeat that performance over multiple games?

Assessing Tuesday night's performance against Club Brugge, the answer at this point is ... kinda?

Some of the good aspects of Saturday's game came with them to Belgium. The defense, save one or two moments, continued to be solid. Indeed, the hosts didn't register a shot on target. The press that suffocated AC Milan was also largely present for Tuesday's match. Juve won the ball back early and often, and maintained close to 60 percent of the possession the entire match — in some of the early phases close to 70.

What was missing was what happened after Juve recovered the ball.

It was the passing that didn't carry over from the Milan match. What had been crisp, quick, and incisive for so much of the game at the Allianz was lethargic and more aimless at the Jan Breydel Stadium. It took more than 30 minutes for Juventus to take their first shot of the match, and only found the target once in five tries — and that one came with five minutes left in the game. The result was a match in which both teams were evenly mediocre, and where the goalless result was profoundly deserved. It was a game that was, to steal one of my favorite phrases of Danny's, a big ol' bucket of meh.

Thiago Motta had the novelty of a nearly-full bench coming into the game. Arkadiusz Milik was the only player who wasn't officially out for the year who was missing, although Dusan Vlahovic, Francisco Conceição, Kenan Yildiz, and Weston McKennie were only fit for the bench. He made three changes to his 4-2-3-1 setup. Michele Di Gregorio started in goal, with Nicolò Savona, Federico Gatti, Pierre Kalulu, and Andrea Cambiaso arrayed in front of him in defense. Douglas Luiz was given his first start in the Champions League, partnering with Manuel Locatelli in midfield. Timothy Weah, Teun Koopmeiners, and Samuel Mbangula joined Nico González in attack.

Brugge manager Nicky Hayen had his team on a fantastic run. The Belgian champions were unbeaten in 18 matches in all competitions (15 of them wins) and hadn't been shut out in 24 games. He countered with his own 4-2-3-1. Simone Mignolet was the goalkeeper, screened by the back four of Kyriani Sabbe, Brandon Mechele, Joel Ordoñez, and Maxim De Cuyper. Raphael Onyedika and Ardon Jashari started in the double pivot, while Chemsdine Talbi, Hans Vanaken, and Christos Tzolis supported striker Ferran Jutglà.

The first half was one of the most uneventful 45 minutes of soccer one had seen in quite some time. Juve held the lion's share of possession and were often quick to recover the ball off the press, with Brugge only managing a spell of about 10 minutes where they could sustain an attack of their own. But for all their possession, the air of inevitability that hung over much of the Milan game was absent as the slower tempo failed to cause Brugge the problems it had the Rossoneri.

Each side only managed a single shot in the first period, neither of which was on target. For Brugge, an early turnover by Weah led to a break that set up Jutglà for a shot from outside the box, but it was pushed well wide. Douglas Luiz missed his effort by an even wider margin, taking down an errant defensive header but completely shanking his attempt to put it on goal.

Heading into halftime one had the feeling that if Juve could just up their tempo a little bit, a breakthrough could be had. The early returns on the second half suggested things might pick up. A bad pass by Di Greogorio set Brugge up for a quick strike four minutes after the restart, but Jutglà again missed his shot wide, albeit by a considerably smaller margin. Three minutes later, Mbangula was set free with a ball over the top and sent in a perfect cross for González. The Argentine was set up for a tap-in, but he somehow contrived to completely miss the ball, instead nearly tripping over it with his trailing foot, popping it into the air. Luiz tried to turn it back to the target but his awkward attempt popped over.

Juve again began to take a little more control of the rhythm of the game as the second half wore on, but still couldn't convert that into chances. Motta tried to change that by introducing Conceiçã and Yildiz, and the former quickly set up Koopmeiners with a lovely cross to the back post, but he could only head it wide. At the other end Gustaf Nilsson volleyed the ball over the bar from close range.

It wasn't until five minutes from time that the game's first shot on target was finally recorded, a 25-yard effort by Locatelli that Mignolet flew to parry. As the game ticked into stoppage time, Gatti made one of his forays forward but hit a cross so hard that no one could even react as it screamed through the box, while Conceição got another good cross in, only to see it headed away from Vlahovic.

The game ticked down to its conclusion, and when the final whistle came Juve had to satiate themselves with yet another draw.

LE PAGELLE

MICHELE DI GREGORIO - 6. Didn't have to make a save, but did make a few other interventions on other plays, coming off to claim a ball that his defense wasn't going to track down.

NICOLÒ SAVONA - 6. Defended his flank well, although wasn't too effective when trying to go forward.

FEDERICO GATTI - 6. Strong defensively when he needed to be and picked his moments to try to bomb forward to help the attack. Actually contributed a dribble as well, and completed 96.5 percent of his passes.

PIERRE KALULU - 7. Led the team with five tackles and completed 97.7 percent of his passes out of the back.

ANDREA CAMBIASO - 5.5. Didn't contribute on offense the way he's used to, but was solid enough defensively.

MANUEL LOCATELLI - 7. His 117 touches was more than anyone on either team and 50 more than Brugge's leader. He led the team in clearances and set the team up well from deep—unfortunately his teammates couldn't do much with it.

DOUGLAS LUIZ - 5.5. Missed both of his shots by significant margins and never really got going with anything particularly creative in terms of passing, even after switching spots with Koopmeiners and becoming the trequartista in the second half.

TIMOTHY WEAH - 5. Had very little impact on the right wing, couldn't use his speed or technique to hurt Brugge.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS - 5. Wasted a great chance with that back-post header, and didn't muster much in the way of creativity with his passing, only completing 84 percent. Dropped back a little in the second half.

SAMUEL MBANGULA - 7. Far and away the leader with four dribbles, and looked like one of the most dangerous players on the field. He should've had an assist on the ball for González. Him coming off the field when he did was a surprise.

NICO GONZALEZ - 5. Can now claim one of the biggest missed sitters of the year after completely fluffing a chance that was harder to miss. He did have a key pass, but wasn't able to produce consistently as either a target or a facilitator.

SUBS

FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO - 6. Immediately had an impact, put in a couple of excellent crosses, one of which was wasted by Koopmeiners and at least two others than were defended just in time.

KENAN YILDIZ - 5.5. Made an effort but wasn't able to get into position to be truly threatening.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC - 5.5. Still a little heavy with his touch but did have a key pass.

KHEPHREN THURAM - 5. Felt like he didn't have time to get into the groove of the game and use his talents to their best.

WESTON McKENNIE - 5. Ran hard but wasn't able to contribute much going forward.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

A couple of things Motta did are worthy of a question or two.

The biggest difference between Tuesday's game and Saturday's against Milan was the quickness and precision of the passing. It makes you wonder whether Motta maybe made the wrong decision rotating the way he rotated. The team just didn't look like they were in sync the same way. Weah was in the lineup due to necessity, and Savona was always heading back to the lineup, but Douglas Luiz, who never managed to combine with his teammates the way Thuram did over the weekend, stuck out a little bit as a weaker link. A little more continuity could have seen the team pass better and break Club Brugge down..

His substitution pattern can also be pondered a bit. Specifically, as good as Conceição and Yildiz are, Mbangula was one of the best players on the field, if not the best, and he was one of the first to come off when Motta made a change. One wonders if that was a little shortsighted, although a desire to switch the focus of the attack from one wing to the other might have been one part of the thought process. But with Koopmeiners struggling to make an impact, it might have been interesting to experiment with putting Yildiz into his place in the hole and leaving Mbangula, one of the most effective players on the pitch, where he was.

That said, it's good to see the team's press has carried over, and that's something he needs to keep up as we head into the teeth of the season to keep Juventus on track for their objectives this year. But the passing has to catch back up.

LOOKING AHEAD

Juve only have one game left in the league phase, a home tilt against Benfica next Tuesday. While they'll want to win in order to get themselves as good a place in the table as possible — and to avenge themselves on the Portuguese side for the way they kicked them around two years ago — it would take a catastrophe of historic proportions to drop out of the top 24 and miss out on the knockout round playoffs entirely.

But before that, Juve will play league leaders (barf) Napoli in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradonna. A result there would be huge in their continued pursuit of the top four, which they are currently two points off the pace for.