Leave it to another Juventus-Napoli game to give us nothing to talk about.
Nothing at all.
Not one thing.
Maybe I shouldn’t even be doing this thread.
Or, maybe, we can say that Juventus beat Napoli 3-1 in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals on Tuesday night. Actually, we can say that, because a 3-1 Juventus win over Napoli did happen. A 3-1 win that materialized after Juventus fell behind by a goal in the first half after some “lovely” marking at the back post by Kwadwo Asamoah. A 3-1 win that featured two Paulo Dybala goals from the penalty spot that had Napoli fans and players alike up in arms about what had just happened in front of their eyes. A 3-1 win that saw Gonzalo Higuain score a goal against his former club for the second time in as many chances since he signed with Juventus over the summer.
So, yeah, there’s nothing to talk about here. Nothing at all.
We’ll see you all tomorrow when we publish a 2,000-word feature on why this game had nothing to talk about at all. Goodnight, everybody!
There’s plenty to talk about in this latest edition of the Juventus-Napoli rivalry. And, as some of you probably figured out, it is something that will center around the referee and the decisions he made Tuesday night.
Although he didn’t protest it for very long, Kalidou Koulibaly might not have thought he committed a penalty against Dybala that led to the game-tying goal. Pepe Reina certainly didn’t feel like he did anything wrong after he brought Juan Cuadrado down in the box after completely whiffing on grabbing the ball and subsequently taking out the Colombian winger. This is what the talk will center around in the hours and probably days following this game.
Am I seeing things through Juventus-colored glasses and seeing not a whole heck of a lot wrong with either penalty? Yeah, probably. Let’s say if Reina had parried the ball out somewhere and then he crashed into Cuadrado there probably shouldn’t have been a penalty called. If Koulibaly didn’t stomp on Dybala’s foot and probably put a couple of stud marks on his toes there might not have been the penalty.
The refereeing wasn’t very good on Tuesday night. There were obviously calls that had both sides scratching their heads and wondering what the hell just happened. It just so happens that a pair of calls both went against Napoli and led to Juventus goals. That’s always going to spawn some kind of talk about things that are not so good. That’s life.
But what is lost in all of the craziness of the second half is that Juventus completely flipped what was a 1-0 deficit when they weren’t playing well at all straight into their favor. Now they head to the San Paolo, a place of frustrating results over the years, leading 3-1 on aggregate and have a very good chance of making the Coppa Italia final for yet another year.
In conclusion: If you’re a sports journalist in Italy and in the general vicinity of Juventus Stadium right now, you wait until Aurelio De Laurentiis shows up, press record on your phone and then just let the dude go. This might be the game that pushes everybody’s favorite scooter rider over the edge.
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- For much of the first half I was thinking that this was one of the rare occurrence when a Juventus goalkeeper was actually forced into making a handful of saves within a short period of time. It’s a good thing that Neto is capable of doing such things.
- When you remember that there are goalkeepers like Pepe Reina who is starting for a club that has serious European aspirations, remember that Juventus has Neto as a backup goalkeeper playing in about 10 games a season. That’s quite the luxury, folks.
- Asamoah had a much better second half than opening 45 minutes, but my goodness, I’m still wondering how he could let Jose Callejon get that wide open at the back post.
- You know what Max Allegri did right on Tuesday night? He took off Stephan Lichtsteiner and put Cuadrado on. Am I a fan of Cuadrado coming off the bench? Why, yes, yes I am. And the instant energy he provided was a pretty good example as to why.
- Leonardo Bonucci’s passing...holy smokes. This is your reminder that he is a defender and he’s playing balls over the top like it’s no big deal at all. Pin-point accuracy, too.
- Seconds before Higuain scored his goal I posted on the BWRAO Twitter account that Gonzalo had been a little wasteful in front of goal against Napoli. You’re welcome.
- Also, cool play by Bonucci to not touch the ball on Higuain’s goal. He could have poached it — and potentially risked an offside flag going up —
- This might be an unpopular opinion, but here it goes:
Juventus’ second half > Juventus’ first half
I’d love to hear what everybody else thinks about that one. - Juventus continues to win at home. That’s good. They should play more games at home. I wonder if that’s possible.
- I’m sure when Juventus play Napoli twice within four days next month that everything is going to be fine. Calm, cool and collected. Yep, totally fine. Nothing to worry about.