ALBERTO'S WEEKLY COLUMN - WEEK 6

Riding the wave of a series of clean sheets and victories since the defeat to Inter on Jan 17th, one of those victories being against that same Inter in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final, Juventus went into a matchup vs Roma with the second leg of the Coppa Italia final on the horizon. This was going to be yet another measuring stick match and week for the Bianconeri. Despite Roma having some controversy surrounding their own team, as Dzeko and their manager Fonseca were involved in a heated exchange, which left the star striker stripped of the captaincy and set to be on the bench to start this one. This match was still going to show us the growth Pirlo's side has seen and if we have corrected the issues that were there in the first matchup, which saw Juve fighting for what was widely considered an undeserving draw. What we got this particular week was probably something not many expected yet very familiar to Juventini. A defensive masterclass in not one matchup but both for the week.

It started against Roma, Juve was able to get the jump on Roma through Cristiano Ronaldo as he made a harmless looking play end with a goal and the lead for his side. From there Juve shut the door with their Capitano Giorgio Chiellini turning back the clock and putting in an absolutely dominating display and being the commander and chief at the back. Roma for all their possession through most of the match could hardly muster a quality scoring chance and late in this one Juve sealed it through an own goal by Ibanez that was deflected in their own goal after a great through ball by Cuadrado to Kulusevski who put the cross that if not put in their own goal by Roma's Ibanez, Ronaldo surely would've slammed into the back of the net. This was a performance that took many of us back to the days when Juve would cruise with a rock-solid backline that was feared at the best of times let alone trailing from even the smallest of margins. Accepting what their opponents could throw at them and then finally delivering the killer blow to finally crush all hopes of them getting anything out of the match. Chiellini easily man of the match in this one. The question quickly became do we start him again or do we go with the young guns of Demiral and De Ligt as we had little time to celebrate as it was quickly time to shift focus on the second leg of the Coppa Italia Semi-Final against Inter.

As we prepare to go into the second leg of this tie against Inter, Juve fans were eagerly waiting to see the lineup. Not sure if the suspense was intended or not but the lineup came very late in comparison to when it's usually announced. The news that had broken out on matchday was Pirlo had tested the left flank with Sandro and Bernardeschi and the right with Danilo and Cuadrado. This is what we would see in the match with two Pivots in the middle of Bentancur and Rabiot as Arthur was out. Kulusevski would be used as a hybrid midfielder used to tie up Brozovic in Inter's midfield and still support Ronaldo in the attack. This lineup received a lot of criticism from Juventini for being too defensive in a matchup where you knew Conte's men would come out hard and try to put Juve under. Although it may have been a surprise, it was very clear what Pirlo was doing, with Juve scoring two goals away from home and holding the lead 2-1 on aggregates, he was challenging Inter to score and break them down in another manner than the flanks. stacking both sides and forcing them through the middle while adding Kulusevski to hang up Brozovic. Simply put, it worked. Juventus, although not generating much offensively in the first half until the very end, for the most part, didn't really seem threatened by Inter. De Ligt pocketing Lukaku, Lautaro not being able to generate much and Hakimi always having multiple guys to deal with and Barella not having time and space to operate and Cristiano Ronaldo looking dangerous every single time he went at Inter's defense, making Skriniar look foolish on multiple occasions. In the second half Demiral, Danilo and De Ligt continued there dominance and absolutely shut Inter down and Ronaldo continued to look dangerous and if not for Handanovic would've had easily a brace and completely crushed Inter's hopes. The soul-crushing sub of Chiellini in the 80th minute pretty much deflated Inter the rest of the way and they knew if they couldn't get a goal before that, they definitely wouldn't get one now. The game ended in a draw and Juve would advance to the Coppa Italia Final on May 19th in Milan. Now we can look ahead to Napoli right?! Well, not so fast.