Just like when the two teams met at the Club World Cup back in early July, a relatively common theme emerged as Juventus hunkered down to try and stay in the game against Real Madrid on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid racks up the shot count, Michele Di Gregorio makes a couple of great saves and then the cycle only seems to repeat itself a couple of times throughout the course of the second half.<\/p>\n
That was the case in Miami nearly four months ago, and that ended up being the case once again in the Champions League at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u. Just as we said against Real Madrid over the summer, if it wasn\u2019t for Di Gregorio and some of the monstrous saves he made, a 1-0 loss could have been much, much worse. This time around, though, Juventus at least had a few cracks at making a game of it. But no matter if it was Dusan Vlahovic or Lo\u00efs Openda, Juve just couldn\u2019t crack the giant Belgian in the Real Madrid goal and find an equalizer.<\/p>\n
It resulted in a second loss in the span of four days for Juventus and a winless streak that has now been stretched out to seven games in all competitions.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of performance that is a bit of something that splits my feelings. Because on one end, Real Madrid had close to 30 shots, had Juventus\u2019 defense extremely stretched at times and had an xG total of close to 3 \u2014 which, if you do the quick math, is nearly five times more than what Juventus was able to do.<\/p>\n
But, on the other end, Juve had chances to score. Vlahovic\u2019s breakaway in which he outran \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o and was only denied by the leg of Thibaut Courtois will loom large. Same goes for the Openda shot in which Jonathan David put it on a silver platter only for him to take a touch too many and see his shot blocked. Same goes for Pierre Kalulu and the gift-wrapped chance he had thanks to a turnover right on the edge of the Real Madrid penalty area. Hell, even Filip Kostic \u2014 yes, him! \u2014 forced a big save out of Courtois in the closing minutes that kept Real Madrid in front.<\/p>\n
For all of the defending that Juventus had to do \u2014 and it sure was a lot! \u2014 they had chances to score. And those chances, with a little better finishing, ends Juve\u2019s sudden run of actually not scoring.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s those two things. Those two very different yet still very frustrating kinds of things that feel like they sum up the current state of Juventus at this moment.<\/p>\n
So, with all of that being said, there\u2019s this piece of information staring us all in the face no matter how you felt about how Juventus actually played against Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
This is the simple truth of the matter. Juventus lost again. They haven\u2019t won since Sept. 13. They\u2019ve been shut out in three straight games and have only scored more than a single goal all of once since their back-to-back four-goal outings against Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund. The scuffle is very much real, very much worrying and very much a thing that could cost Igor Tudor his job in the near future.<\/p>\n
With Wednesday night\u2019s loss, they now sit on two points through their first three UCL league phase games. For as much as last season\u2019s Champions League campaign frustrated the living hell out of us all, this one is certainly giving it a run for its money. If the league phase were to end right now, Juventus would be completely out of the competition since they\u2019re sitting in 25th place. You know, the first team out as the other 24 teams go on and keep their European adventures alive.<\/p>\n
Is this going to be the game that suddenly allows Juventus to snap out of their current slump? I don\u2019t know. A lot like facing Real Madrid \u2014 albeit one in which was quite shorthanded and had to play their best midfielder at right back because of injuries and suspensions \u2014 there\u2019s not exactly a lot of confidence coming from my gut because of it. This is a flawed team and there\u2019s probably only so much Tudor can do at this point to try and get things turned around in a major way.<\/p>\n
But, again, Juventus should have some regrets after this game. That most definitely should. They could have scored. Hell, probably should have scored with a couple of the chances they had. They just couldn\u2019t, and that is currently one of the biggest issues with this team \u2014 they just can\u2019t find the back of the net.<\/p>\n
The favorites won on Wednesday night. That\u2019s probably not a surprise knowing how Juventus have been playing over the last month. And if it wasn\u2019t for Di Gregorio, some of those saves would have been goals and the scoreline would have been a lot, lot worse. That\u2019s what makes the fact that a loss that at least had a chance to be a draw with what Juve did after falling behind a little tough to take.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just \u2026 yeah, another instance of this team not being to overcome its shortcomings.<\/p>\n
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS<\/p>\n
I said it in July and I will say it again: Michele Di Gregorio didn\u2019t deserve any of this.I mean, the man saved a shot with his face. He saved a shot with his stomach \u2014 and was gasping for air for a few minutes because of it. And that was after he made a huge save a split-second before.A couple of those saves were just pure athleticism and reactions. How quickly he got up after the first half of his double save was brilliant. The man deserves all of the plaudits that he will receive.I think it\u2019s safe to say the simple mentality that Juve took into their game against Real Madrid was miles ahead of where they were against Como. That is something I was very happy to see.Brahim Diaz putting his studs into Khephren Thuram\u2019s ankle on the hour mark is just a yellow, huh? Well color me surprised because I\u2019ve seen that called against a Juventus player plenty of times.The fact that Thuram came out right after that was quite the swing, too. Not totally sure if it was planned, but the fact that Juve\u2019s best midfielder was suddenly not on the field seems like an important factor.Vlahovic couldn\u2019t convert that chance in the second half \u2014 yes, it was a great save, so it\u2019s not like some of his previous efforts that he\u2019s totally fluffed \u2014 but he sure did play his tail off against Real Madrid.Real Madrid passes in the first half: 376.Juventus passes in the first half: 155.Real Madrid corner kicks in the first half: 9.Juventus corner kicks in the first half: 2.I dunno, guys, but I\u2019m still thinking playing Kalulu as a wingback isn\u2019t a good idea if you\u2019re looking to counterattack a team like Real Madrid. The output says it right there \u2014 when he had the ball at his feet, he either was turning it over or his cross attempt was just not good enough.Would Juve have been worse off defensively if Joao Mario was out there? Sure, but you feel like he would have been better in the counterattacking side of the equation.Hell, I sure as hell know Alberto Costa would have done better as an attacking wingback, but he\u2019s currently with Porto and probably wondering what the heck happened to the team he left a few months ago.No matter how defensive you play agianst Real Madrid \u2014 and doing that in Juve\u2019s situation felt like the right way to go \u2014 seeing Kenan Yildiz get just 30 touches in just over 70 minutes and not really test Real Madrid\u2019s defense outside of a couple of times is just not great.Although, it was at least a little entertaining to see the back and forth between Yildiz and Arda G\u00fcler out on the left wing from time to time. The reasons are obvious, and it just would have been nice to see Yildiz get the better of his countryman a few more times.Federico Gatti had himself a game. Like a big game. The man blocked five shots! That\u2019s a lot.I honestly though this was going to be a lot worse scoreline-wise. So thank you, Mr. Di Gregorio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just like when the two teams met at the Club World Cup back in early July, a relatively…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79451,43,44,55755,55756,55757,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-234094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-champions-league-2025-26","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-post-game-threads","tag-previews-reviews","tag-serie-a-campionato-2025-26","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}