Round 7: Juventus vs. Cagliari match preview
Yesterday at 05:10 PM
It's the final game before another international break and now we see how much Juve have left in the tank after quite the emotional roller coast midwek.
It's the thought you have every time Juventus returns to domestic competition following a big, emotional and physically draining Champions League win like we saw a few days back in Leipzig.
"Will there be the dreaded Champions League hangover?"
It's something that creeps into everybody's mind no matter how much you try to avoid it. It's natural, and there's nothing you can do about it. We've seen it too many times after a big European night — Juve return to Serie A competition and ... yeah, it's not all that great.
That is what Thiago Motta is going to be trying to avoid when Juventus faces Cagliari in Sunday's lunchtime kickoff at the Allianz Stadium. The emotional roller coaster that Motta's squad went through Wednesday is one that we hadn't seen in a good bit of time, and now the onus is to try and avoid that dreaded Champions League hangover as much as possible and to go into the October international break with as many potential good vibes as possible.
Juve's comeback win over RB Leipzig on Wednesday night has certainly generated a lot of excitement surrounding the squad. That is even with the damper that comes with likely losing Bremer for the rest of the season due to an ACL injury. And now with the domestic scoring streak over and done with thanks to last weekend's win over Genoa, Juve now have the chance to go into the break with a whole lot of wind in their sails.
And Motta knows it.
"Enthusiasm must be used to do our job well and better," he said during his pre-match press conference Saturday. "We want to maintain it but it depends only on us. The more enthusiasm there is, the better."
No matter who you're facing after a big Champions League win, ramping things back up is always going to be a big part of how successful you're going to be in the game after the big game. Considering the fact that they're facing a Cagliari team that just claimed their first win of the season a few days ago and entered the weekend sitting just outside the relegation zone. Yeah, sure, it's early in the season, but for a team that just barely escaped relegation only to be right back there after all of six games in the new campaign, it's not exactly an encouraging sign no matter if Claudio Ranieri is there or not. (He's obviously not these days and I hope he's enjoying retirement and lots of good wine.)
But with that comes the expectation that Cagliari, a team that currently sits 16th in the Serie A table, is probably going to do its best to sit back and try and have Juventus break them down with numbers behind the ball. We know that, prior to last weekend's win over Genoa, an opposing team doing that has given Juventus some issues. We saw it against an Empoli team that is now starting to cool off after their hot start. We saw it against better competition like Napoli and Roma, too. So as much as Juve getting things right in the second half against Genoa was encouraging, it's about actually being in a position to do what they did coming out of halftime at the Marassi on a more consistent basis.
And maybe even in the first half, too.
We know it was (for the most part) a happy Wednesday in Germany for Juventus. But now to avoid Hangover Sunday and head into the break within touching distance of that maniacal man in Naples who has his time atop the Serie A table, there's still business to do.
TEAM NEWS
- As was made official on Thursday, Juventus star center back Gleison Bremer has torn his ACL in his left knee and will undergo in the coming days. While Juventus have not officially released a timetable for his return, it is widely assumed that he will not play in another game this season.
- The other half of the early injury barrage from the win over RB Leipzig, Nico Gonzalez, is likely out for at least a couple of weeks with a muscle injury in his right thigh.
- With Gonzalez injured, one of Wednesday night's heroes, Francisco Conceição, is in line to make his first start as a Juventus player. He will probably get a nice reception by the home fans in Turin.
- The other three injured players are no surprise, either: Arek Milik, Timothy Weah and Vasilije Adžić. Milik, who underwent another knee procedure earlier in the week, may not be available until the beginning of 2025.
- Weah did return to training on Friday, but clearly isn't ready to be called up to the matchday squad just yet.
- Two names that Thiago Motta threw out there as potential options in the center of defense due to Bremer's injury: Manuel Locatelli and Nicolo Savona. "Having an intelligent player in that position would make me the happiest coach in the world. Let's see how it goes in training," Motta said.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
We saw a whole lot of things Wednesday night in Leipzig. Both good and bad.
One of the most impressive ones that has flown under the radar a little bit considering everything else that took place? (And it was a lot!) Let's just say it was the performance from this young man below, who suddenly finds himself righting the ship after a bit of a struggle to start the season and life under Thiago Motta.
Nicolo Fagioli's performance against RB Leipzig was very much one that is easily his best of the season. It may have in fact be up there with the best of his young career, one that is hopefully getting back on track now that he's starting to truly shake the rust off after being suspended for so much of last season.
Case in point: Fagioli completed all but one of the 63 passes he attempted against Leipzig. That one pass. he didn't complete? It was be he purposely kicked out of bounds because an opposing player was down. And let's not act like they were just simple pass attempts, either — just go look at what he did on the pass to Teun Koopmeiners right before the phantom foul call along the sideline right before all hell broke loose in the second half.
For somebody who just a few short weeks ago looked like he was struggling to settle into Juventus' starting lineup despite Motta giving him a healthy number of chances, the tide certainly has turned for Fagioli. And much like the team on the whole that has improved performances of late, it's now about keeping the positive momentum going.
(Now watch Thiago Motta rest Fagioli in favor of Locatelli and all of this being a moot point.)
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 12:30 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 11:30 am. in the United Kingdom, 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, 3:30 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: There are no over-the-air broadcast options available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Italy.
Online/Streaming:Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven't already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
