Juventus 3 - Bologna 0: Initial reaction and random observations

It was around the 55th minute and, as I am want to do when things are not all that great in Juventus land, I sent out a tweet on the BWRAO Twitter account to basically express my displeasure with the proceedings up to that point.

The tweet read: “Thrilling start to the second half this has been.”

Over the course of the next seven or eight minutes, this is what Juventus ended up doing:

• 59th minute: Dusan Vlahovic goal
• 62nd minute: Arek Milik goal

OK, so sometimes the tweets can work in mysterious ways if you believe that a guy sitting in his recliner and tweeting away about Juventus from thousands of miles away can have some sort of impact on things. But there’s no denying that the goals from Vlahovic and Milik — two of the best ones Juve’s scored all season — were the breathing room that everybody was hoping for but not necessarily were convinced would actually happen. It allowed a rather nervy 1-0 lead to turn into a comfortable final 25 minutes, with Juventus ending their five-game winless run in all competitions thanks to a 3-0 win over Bologna at Allianz Stadium.

That is what we like to call in the business “a much-needed win.”

And while it certainly is a result that doesn’t cure all of Juventus’ ills, it’s a momentary respite from what had become the usual talking points after an Allegri-coached game.

Was it dominant? Well, this is what I’m struggling with. I don’t think it was as dominant as some folks on certain broadcasts made it out to be considering that Juventus had all of three shots on goal in the first half and wasn’t looking all that great in the second half before the two goals in less than four minutes. There very much was a good amount of time to begin the second half in which you’re thinking to yourself something along the lines of “Juventus makes one mistake and this thing is all tied up again.” That was just the nature of the beast, and that is very much a Juventus kind of thing during the 2022-23 season to think.

Can you imagine what that stadium would have been like — even though it was very much not a full stadium on the East grandstand side — if Juventus did allow a tying goal? They weren’t exactly a rowdy crowd or anything to it when Juve went ahead and then added to their lead, but I’m pretty sure they would have been in the bad sense of it if Bologna had scored.

Thankfully, the shithouse kind of stuff that Juventus has shown to us time and time again when playing teams that are in the bottom half of the table didn’t show its face again.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this kind of low-key, rather drama-free kind of game is something we haven’t seen from Juventus in quite a while. It’s something I would love to see more often, of course, and obviously something that I would be OK with happening before I tweet about how kinda meh the second half is going right before goals are scored.

But above all else, Juventus winning and trying to put some good form together during this six-week stretch prior to the World Cup break is the most important thing of all. This win will only mean so much if Juve don’t get the job done midweek against Maccabi Haifa and then next weekend at the San Siro against AC Milan.

This is one step forward. A small step, but a step nonetheless. I’ll take it compard to

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Why is Juve starting this trend of not wearing their home kit at home? I don’t get it, folks. (Well, I do get it, because there’s likely money motivation behind it, but I just don’t like it.)
• This is one of the first weekends I can remember — and maybe the first one if I actually did research on it — in which Juve’s three main squads with the men, women and U-23 all wore the same jersey that wasn’t the home kit. Kinda cool to have some sort of unison there, but wear the stripes at home, man.
• One last kit comment: We need to normalize Wojciech Szczesny and the rest of the Juve keepers wearing the away kit as the goalkeeper kit. That thing is just too nice to only bust out a select number of times this season.
• That strike from Arek Milik on his goal — woof.
• That counterattack from Juventus on Filip Kostic’s opening goal — woof.
• That counterattack from Juventus on Dusan Vlahovic’s goal — woof.
• That cross from Weston McKennie on Vlahovic’s goal — woof.
• Juventus scored three goals from open play and I honestly can’t remember the last time that happened. It’s been a while, folks.
• I was worried that all Filip Kostic was going to do in this game was just send in cross after cross after cross. And then that counterattack happened and Kostic scored his first goal for Juventus. That was quite the pleasant surprise. Hooray for Team Serbia doing good things like they did during the international break.
• Much like Juventus as a whole, this was a game in which Dusan Vlahovic needed for the good of his season. We all know he’s the centerpiece of Juve’s attack and very much somebody who can carry your offense when he gets rolling. But for much of Juve’s winless run, we’d been seeing Frustrated Dusan rather than Happy Dusan. On Sunday, we got Happy Dusan with a goal and an assist. That’s the kind of Dusan that Juve needs if they want to turn this season around for the better both domestically and in Europe.
• I am more than happy to be wrong about Arek Milik. I didn’t think he was going to be all that great based on his counting stats the last couple of years, but this crow tastes wonderful and I’m here for more of it. The more goals he scores means the more seasoning I get to put on this crow, right? I sure hope so!
• Thoughts from right before Milik’s goal: Hey, it’s Andrea Cambiaso!
• More thoughts from right before Milik’s goal: Gary Medel still has a very punchable face.
• Because this win allows me to say this: LOL INTER! Guess who Juve’s now ahead of in the Serie A table? Yeah, it’s Inter. We can now laugh at Inter because they’re trailing Juventus in the table even though Juventus has had a pretty bad start to the season.
• Other than some stupid turnovers (since they are required by Juventus midfielders) I think this was a positive first game back from injury for Manuel Locatelli. He needed that and Juventus needs him to find some form.
• When in doubt, just know that Max Allegri is going to sub on Mattia De Sciglio.
• You wanted to see Nicolo Fagioli get some second-half minutes in a 3-0 game? NOPE, YOU WILL NOT. You will get De Sciglio minutes and you will like it.
• Juan Cuadrado completed all 19 of the passes he attempted and all four of the long balls he delivered, yet all I can remember from his performance was how he tried to force his way to the byline and then turned it over for a Bologna goal kick. Juan gonna Juan, I guess.
• Juventus is just three points out of a Europa League spot, baby! Get excited!
• Writing about a Juventus win, it’s been a while. So a long time that I had to look up the last time I was writing one of those post-game threads after a win. (It was Aug. 31 against Spezia.)
• Seriously, Juventus went 0-for-September! October is already better than September, I guess.