It was shocking to no one really. Even to die-hard Juventini fans. The veracity of the first goal aside (looking at you VAR), this west-London performance was almost perfectly clinical and ruthless against an uninspired and lacklustre shell of a team.
The fact that the first couple of goals came from two homegrown Cobham defenders against a (formerly?) famous defensive powerhouse such as Juventus can be analysed ad nauseam. Each analysis will likely be as disappointing and confusing as Massimiliano Allegri’s decision to come into this match seeking to defend right off the bat. However, this is not that surprising to anyone who followed the build-up to this match.
This years’ Champions League group stage had actually been kind to the Old Lady and Juventus had already qualified to the knockout rounds following a 4-match winning streak. So, knowing the innate pragmatism of Allegri and Italian football, no sensible person really expected the injury-riddled, underperforming Serie A team to dominate scoring chances against the defending European champions. In fact, they only produced 8 shots to Chelsea’s 20. Notwithstanding, the Italian national team, which represents the core of Juventus, also did not have an inspiring international break.
Going back to the actual match, one did not have to wait long to see how it would play out. Tuchel and his Lukaku-less, well-oiled machine dominated from the kick-off and never looked back. The creative and explosive speed of Federico Chiesa was not allowed to be released, and shockingly, he registered no shots at all in all of his 80 minutes on the field. Instead, Chelsea’s fullbacks, notably the mercurial Reece James, were given ample space and opportunity to run Juventus’ midfield ragged with their quick movement on and off the ball.
Going back a bit, if we analyse the reverse fixture, one can note a couple of important points:
- After a quite impressive defensive Juve display almost a month previously, in which Lukaku started, the defending champions were defeated by a singular goal from the highly touted Chiesa.
- Chelsea had 74% possession to Juventus’ 26% in that reverse fixture, yet could not come out of the deep defensive shape employed by the Juve team.
- In comparison, the possession stats were much closer this week (55% to Chelsea, 45% to Juve), and yet Chelsea completely dominated their chances in the last third.
- Tuesday’s 4-0 trouncing proved that Chelsea’s versatile and adaptable attack was too much for Juventus’ backline.
Goals came regularly and furiously after the opener from Trevor Chalobah in the 25th minute. A quick one-two punch from Reece James (55’) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (58’) virtually cemented Juventus in the second spot in the group. Timo Werner added the final nail to the i bianconeri coffin in injury time (90 +5).
Allegri, to his credit, openly acknowledged the difference in the depth of quality between the two sides. To be fair, he really had no other angle when addressing this humiliating loss to the media after the match. It was clear to anyone watching the match that there was a great gulf in structure and talent between the two teams. Juventus had not lost by four clear goals in all competition since a 4-0 Serie A defeat to Roma in February 2004; this was their worst ever Champions League defeat.
In an interview with Sky Sports Italia, Allegri stated, “I think the first half was good. After the break, they continued their press, while we were a bit too weak on the second and third goals.
“There were moments when we gave the ball away too cheaply by trying to make vertical passes too quickly rather than keeping the ball. We do that often and need to work on that, because you can’t do it against the reigning champions of Europe.
“The team was by no means bad in the first half. After the break, we lost confidence after the errors for the second and third goals.”
Some very strong words by the manager, and going forward, Juventus need to bounce back for their final Champions’ League group game against Malmö on the 8th December.