Europa League, Juventus-Nantes 1-1: goals from Vlahovic and Blas

Only one draw for Juve in the first Europa League match against Nantes: 1-1 and a big veil of disappointment for not having finished the match in the first sixty minutes of the game. Vlahovic’s advantage was neutralized in the second half by Blas’ equal, keeping everything open for the purposes of qualifying for the round of 16: everything will be decided in the second leg scheduled for next Thursday in France. The beginning of the evening at the Allianz Stadium, sold out for the occasion, seemed to take another direction. In the final part of the match, on the other hand, the black and whites, leaning forward in search of success, even risked on some opponent restarts. In full recovery then the discussed episode from Var: Centonze, in the Nantes penalty area, touches her hand but the referee calls a foul in attack for Bremer’s push.

trident choice

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Allegri (in his debut in the competition) chooses the trident and surprises everyone excluding Kostic, reigning champion with Eintracht Frankfurt. Locatelli starts from the bench, Paredes is in the control room. While De Sciglio acts as a balancer on the right, closing the four-man defensive line in the non-possession phase and systematically getting up during the development of the action. Nantes has a working-class 5-3-2: modest but not trivial team, thirteenth in Ligue 1 and 26 points behind PSG who sent the bianconeri out of the Champions League. Following the French formation there are more than 2,000 fans, who almost entirely occupy the away sector.

vlahovic goal

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Di Maria tries immediately with a left from the edge (central conclusion, rejected). But he works above all between the lines to receive the ball and create: so in the 12th minute the Argentine sees the cut towards Chiesa (from the left) and serves it, for Vlahovic (in front of goal) to close the action on the net Partner assist is child’s play. The Serbian centre-forward, who had already scored a few seconds after his debut in the Champions League last year, also hits the mark in his first ever appearance in the Europa League. Nantes’ reaction is far too weak, Juve defends with order and doesn’t seem to have great difficulties coming out. While the trident exalts.

challenge between exes

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Another attempt from distance by Di Maria, who again finds the rejection by Lafont, a former teammate of Chiesa and Vlahovic at Fiorentina in the 2018-19 season. The goalkeeper was also pardoned by a mistake by Vlahovic in the half hour of play: on a cross from the left by Alex Sandro, one of his defenders (Girotto) fouled the trajectory of the ball with a deflection, the center forward was not very agile on the rebound not perfect goalkeeper. Who at the end of the first half denies Paredes a goal from a free kick: the ball is punched away. He repeats himself at the beginning of the second half on yet another shot on goal by the usual Di Maria.

peer of nantes

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It changes everything on the hour in the game. Juve could double but lose the moment on the edge of the opponent’s area and allow the French to restart following a wrong pass from Fagioli: Paredes slips and opens the gap favoring the verticalization of the French, like Bremer a little further on, while Blas is already on the opposite side and crosses with a left passing Szczesny. The black and whites didn’t like it, they moved into the opponent’s half and two minutes later they hit two woodworks with Chiesa: the ball first hit the inside crossbar, then the line (only half inside) and again on the post to the left of the goalkeeper.

question and answer

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Allegri inserts fresh forces from the bench: inside Locatelli and Kostic for Fagioli and Paredes, then again Soulé and Cuadrado for De Sciglio and Di Maria. For the latter another cross directly from a corner kick, a few moments before going out. While Nantes begins to believe in it and almost doubles with Moutoussamy: Szczesny keeps a good guard on the trajectory of the shot. In the last ten minutes, good balls were wasted by Locatelli and Rabiot. Allegri also throws Kean into the fray (for Vlahovic) but the very occasional in the area happens first to Danilo (with a right foot shot too high) and then to Bremer (who gets in the way with Locatelli on a header). The last episode requires the support of the VAR for a touch of the hand by Girotto: his arm is wide, but according to the referee there is a foul on the Nantes defender. So it ends in a draw.