Juventus 4 - Sampdoria 2: Initial reaction and random observations

We should have known this would be anything but a routine night when there was barely any sort of atmosphere inside the Allianz Stadium as things kicked off Sunday night.

Then maybe you thought it would be a routine win when Juve went up 2-0 on a pair of powerful headers within the first 26 minutes against last-place Sampdoria.

But ... ha ... ha ha ha.

There was nothing routine about this night. How odd and strange this game ended up being made about as much as sense as why the crowd at the Allianz was as quiet as they were for the vast majority of this game.

Thankfully, Juventus’ complete first-half defensive meltdown didn’t extend into the second 45 minutes. And while there were still plenty of odd things to make you all go “HUH?!” — like, for instance, Dusan Vlahovic’s entire night — Juventus were able to survive all of the weirdness to beat relegation-bound Sampdoria 4-2 and jump into seventh place in the Serie A table. It was far from what should have taken place after building such a strong early lead, but with the blackouts come the aftermath, and in this case it was Juventus trying to survive a complete disaster against a Sampdoria side that entered as the team that has scored the fewest goals of any club in Europe’s top five leagues.

They very much survived.

We didn’t think they would need to be in that kind of mode — especially after Bremer and Rabiot both headed home first-half goals to set Juve on their way to put their team ahead 2-0.

However ...

Ah, that was the catch in all of this. Because of how Sampdoria roared back into this game with two goals within 61 seconds, Juventus’ easy road to three points became anything but that. It created a situation in which not only Juve saw their lead completely disappear with what felt like the snap of the fingers but also were pegged back for pretty much the rest of the first half by a team that came to Turin struggling to do much of anything right this season.

The final scores may be the same, but it was very much a different kind of deal than what we saw in Juve’s 4-2 win against Torino almost two weeks ago. That was Juventus fighting from behind twice — the first basically coming right after the opening kickoff — to get the win, while this was very much trying to right the ship after seeing your two-goal lead go up in smoke.

Both games ended the same way, though — and that’s what counts.

It was far from routine, far from where we thought it was going after they got up 2-0, but Juve got the three points they needed to get. And with this team sometimes, you just gotta roll with whatever they do if it means the end result is three more points. (I know it’s frustrating, I know it’s tough, but it’s just the reality we currently find ourselves in.) This team needs points if it wants to get into a European place even with a 15-point penalty, and they’re now on the cusp of putting some serious heat on sixth-place Atalanta, if they aren’t already.

So as much as Juve should’ve closed out Sampdoria the first time around in this game, it’s better than completely dropping three points, right? RIGHT? Wins are good, right?

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Pre-game thought No. 1: I guess it’s time to try and commit the name “Barrenechea” to muscle memory now because Enzo SZN is becoming a thing the last few weeks.
• Pre-game thought No. 2: Beans! Miretti! Enzo! It’s a Juve Next Gen party!
• Pre-game thought No. 3: So much for my hopes of Matias Soulé getting a start :(
• Pre-game thought No. 4: ... I totally forgot Dejan Stankovic was Sampdoria’s manager. Oops.
• SOULÉ GOT HIS GOAL THOUGH SO TAKE THAT.
• Juventus are unbeaten since Theo Locatelli came into this world. Bravo, Loca family.
• From what I gathered from those who cover Juventus, these players have appointments at J Medical within the next few hours or on Monday: Paul Pogba, Bremer, Leonardo Bonucci. Good times, right?
• Let’s hope that the Bremer second-half substitution isn’t a huge deal because the last thing Juventus need is to be completely shorthanded in defense against Freiburg on Thursday.
• So, go ahead and put the Bremer prayer circle together so that we can see him playing in Germany in a few days.
• Fun fact: Sampdoria’s starting goalkeeper on Sunday night, 19-year-old Martin Turk, is one of those rare cases of a player going on loan to a Serie A club while still being owned by a Serie B team. (He also spent the first half of this season on loan in Serie C, so what a ride, eh?) Last season, he served as the backup at Parma to ... Gianluigi Buffon.
• We got a very nice Fabio Miretti assist.
• We got a very nice Nicolo Fagioli assist.
• We got another Filip Kostic assist. And it came on a corner, so it was technically a cross, right?
• I’m not getting too over the top about Vlahovic just yet. Hopefully the reaction he had play-wise after his missed penalty kick lit some sort of fire in him. At the very least Vlahovic attempting eight shots and having 50 total touches was a sign of improvement. I just feel like the guy needs to see a goal or two actually cross the line and let his subsequent celebration release all of the voodoo from the last couple of weeks. This outing was very different from the Freiburg one for Vlahovic because at least this time he was actually involved in things and not just a man left out there on an island.
• I would also love to know what Stankovic said to Vlahovic during their lengthy post-game talk in which it really just looked like one guy talking. It appeared to be very emotional and very motivational, so let’s hope that whatever Stankovic told Vlahovic proves to be fruitful going forward.
• Stankovic also did that AFTER his last-place team that’s heading toward relegation loss another game. Props to him.
• Juve’s record 20 shots or more in their past two games. It’s true. Really.
• The Adrien Rabiot Contract Year vibes are very real and they’re only continuing as we hit mid-March. Let that be known to the Premier League clubs who are seeing him have his best goal-scoring season of his career.
• Manolo Gabbiadini is 31 years old. I didn’t know that.
• That’s now nine goals allowed in Juve’s last five home games. That’s not good — at all.
• Juan Cuadrado attempted seven crosses against Sampdoria. He came on at halftime.
• Filip Kostic attempted 15 crosses against Sampdoria. He did start this game.
• Between those two guys, that’s a lot of crosses! (And almost four times as many crosses as the rest of Juventus’ roster attempted on Sunday night.)
• Seriously, though: What the heck was up with that crowd? Just weird vibes all the way around — and that was before the weird things started happening on the field. I’ve heard some quiet crowds in my time running this here website, but I can’t remember one that was quiet from the onset and Juve’s scoring two goals to go ahead 2-0 didn’t really change much. Just ... yeah, I dunno how to describe it other than just being weird.
• The black jerseys remain undefeated even if Juve lose while playing in them. They’re just too good.