Lecce-Juve 0-1, goal by Vlahovic after 12 seconds | Serie A

Juve opened the “window that counts” in record time, as Spalletti put it, won 1-0 in Lecce (goal from Vlahovic after 12 seconds) and took a nice breath of fresh air in the sprint to qualify for the Champions League. The Bianconeri spend a night in third place, +1 over Milan, but, above all, +4 over Roma and +6 over Como, who play away tomorrow against Parma and Verona respectively. The same window, however, slams in the face of Di Francesco’s team, who now risk seeing their margin drastically reduced over third-last Cremonese, which they can shorten to -1 tomorrow by beating already relegated Pisa.

LIGHTNING SHOULDER – The Salento coach confirms the eleven that won in the last round against the Tuscans, Spalletti, surprisingly, relaunches Koopmeiners as a starter after 8 matches (and just 130′ played), preferring him to Thuram, and finds Vlahovic again from 1′ after 161 days since the last time (Juve-Cagliari on 29 November). And the Juventus coach’s moves are decisive in record time, right from kick-off. Yildiz receives the serve from Locatelli, runs a few meters and throws deep into the area where 5 teammates are already throwing themselves. The Dutchman surprises Veiga from behind and widens on the short side for Cambiaso, who puts it in the middle: Siebert misses and sends Tiago Gabriel out of time, favoring the control of the Serbian number 9, who cools Falcone, making Gallo’s desperate slide useless. It is the fastest goal in Juve’s history for 21 years now, on the Serie A podium after Leao in Sassuolo-Milan (6 seconds, December 2020) and Lozano in Verona-Napoli (January 2021). A “thrust”, the kick-off pattern, like those on the set pieces that had yielded so many goals in the days of Napoli winning the Scudetto.

JUVE, USUAL VICES AND VIRTUES – Despite the initial episode, however, the return to the old 4-2-3-1 after more than two months is beneficial to his Juve: McKennie behind Vlahovic (and not out on the right in the middle) finds his comfort zone again, Koopmeiners guarantees much more dynamism and dribbling than the bruised Thuram, and being able to count on Vlahovic allows the team to look more for depth, forcing Lecce to often find themselves man against man in defence. Spalletti’s team, however, shows the usual defects: first, they always concede something too much behind. Here, however, the weak points of Di Francesco’s team emerge, not surprisingly the worst attack in the championship: the equalizing opportunity comes at the feet of Cheddira in the 3rd minute, following an assist from Banda, but the Moroccan turns on Di Gregorio, who is still reactive. Second Juventus vice: too many measurement errors in the passes, but, above all, inability to materialize the amount of play built. Conceiçao in the 4th minute, after a nice verticalization by Locatelli, was stopped by the post; Vlahovic once was denied by Falcone (6′), the other time he kicked a sort of moving penalty very high, after a nice ball recovered from the midfield by the Portuguese attacking a distracted Tiago Gabriel.

OPPOSITE ROADS – When it is not the opponents’ merit or his own demerit, what denies the Serbian the joy of an encore is an offside, as in the 48th minute, when, after playing pinball with Falcone, his celebration was strangled by the VAR, which detected his irregular starting position on Cambiaso’s shot from the edge of the box. Luckily for Juve, however, Lecce is always harmless and gets everything wrong even when it could have done badly. Like in the 56th minute, when after a great restart on the Veiga-Perotti axis, Cheddira chewed on a nice chance in the center of the area. Then, Juve continues to argue with the flag (goal disallowed for Kalulu in the 59th minute due to Vlahovic’s millimetric offside start) and Di Francesco (in the meantime gone 3 behind with the additions of Jean, Helgason, Camarda and N’Dri for Ngom, Veiga, Cheddira and Banda) with the aim of his players: the opportunity kicked on the outside of the net by the Ivorian substitute in the 77th minute was sensational. after mass distraction of the Juventus defense. “The road is not always clean and free, important challenges are won in the curves,” Spalletti had said before the match: after this cool night in Salento, Juve’s path to the Champions League becomes more straight, while Lecce’s path to salvation remains quite tortuous.