Juventus squander comeback at the death against Villarreal

If there’s one conclusion to make after Juventus’ Champions League match against Villarreal on Wednesday, it’s to confirm what we knew from the balance of the 2024-25 season: without Gleison Bremer in the lineup, Juventus’ defense becomes very shaky.

So it was at the Estadio de la Cerámica, where the Old Lady’s defense was burned early and switched off late against the team that eliminated them from this competition in 2022. Without the Brazilian’s steadying presence, the defenders that Igor Tudor did deploy were repeatedly scorched by pace in the early phases, then disappeared at precisely the wrong time at the end of the game, giving away the lead at the last minute and condemning Juve to a 2-2 draw.

Those failures largely obscure what happened in between. Juventus responded well to going down early, had some chances to equalize in the first half, and then flipped the game on its head in a span of five minutes early in the second. That, perhaps, is the second thing to take away from Wednesday’s game: that Juve continue to confirm that they are a far stronger team mentally than they have been in years, and are fully equipped to respond to a setback on the pitch if it comes.

Yes, you want Juventus to make those responses and then hold them, but the very fact that they can do it is a silver lining to their fourth straight draw in all competitions.

Tudor was missing Khéphren Thuram, Fabio Miretti, and Arkadiusz Milik in addition to Bremer. He made the surprising decision to rotate in goal and start Mattia Perin over Michele Di Gregorio behind his 3-4-2-1. Pierre Kalulu, Federico Gatti, and Lloyd Kellyn started in front of the goal in a 3-4-2-1. Andrea Cambiaso and Juan Cabal started on the wings, flanking the midfield pair of Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie. Teun Koopmeiners joined Kenan Yildiz in support of Jonathan David in attack.

Villarreal manager Marcelino Garcia countered with a 4-3-3. Interestingly, Marcelino also chose to use his No. 2 goalkeeper, sending out Arnau Tenas to anchor the defense of Santiago Mouriño, old friend Renato Veiga, Rafa Marin, and Alfonso Pedraza. Papa Gueye, Dani Parejo, and Santi Comesaña played in midfield, while Nicolas Pepé, Georges Mikautadze, and Tajon Buchanan formed the attacking trident.

It immediately became apparent that Villarreal’s pace was going to be a problem for Juve’s back line. Six minutes into the game Cabal was booked after taking down Pepé at the edge of the penalty area after the Ivorian burned him. A minute later another move forced a double block by Locatelli and Yildiz—the latter of which struck the young Turk in a place that may raise questions about future generations of Yildiz.

Pepé soon blew past Cabal again, this time going down theatrically in the box after taking a light touch in the back from the Colombian. Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs saw through the ruse, but whether Tudor could afford to keep Cabal on the field even for the rest of the first half was becoming a serious question. It became a moot point just a few minutes later, when Cabal pulled up after trying to send a long pass downfield and ended up being helped off the field by trainers, replaced by João Mário.

Villarreal kept on breaking Juve’s press and battering them with lightning-fast runs downfield. In the 17th minute, they broke through. Parejo took advantage of a space opened up by Kelly after the Englishman allowed himself to get sucked into midfield. Splitting Gatti and Cambiaso, Mikautadze charged through the gap. The defenders managed to disrupt him, but the ball squeaked out to Pepé. Meanwhile, Mikautadze regained his feet and had open grass to run into and latch on to the Ivorian’s square ball and slam it across Perin and into the net.

Minutes after play resumed the home team scythed through Juve again, and Perin had to show out to divert Pedraza’s shot from the left side of the box onto the far post. Juve took the rebound on the shot and executed a lightning counter of their own. A shot by Yildiz was charged down and deflected into the air, but Tenas’s weak punch only put the ball on the head of a charging McKennie. The US international’s header was central as opposed to a corner, allowing Tenas to just tip the ball over the bar when it looked for a moment like it would go through his hands.

That run seemed to make the Bianconeri realize that they could, in fact, play offensive football, and as the half wore on, they turned into the aggressor. McKennie got under a shot and ballooned it over, while a first-time rocket from Yildiz was charged down by Mouriño. McKennie had another header stopped by Tenas just before the half-hour, and despite a late scare at the end of the half when Perin was forced to push away a near-post shot from Buchanan, they went into the locker room the team with the lion’s share of possession and had mounted several dangerous attacks. It felt like, with the right tweaks, the Bianconeri would be able to climb back into the match.

That tweak came as soon as the teams came back out of the tunnel. Francisco Conceição was summoned from the bench to replace an ineffective Koopmeiners. The diminutive winger-turned-CAM made an instant impact, and Juve should’ve drawn level within 120 seconds when the Portuguese collected a pass, moved into the box, and laid the ball perfectly into the path of David. The Canadian somehow contrived to miss, clanking it off his heel and wide when a simple tap-in looked certain.

Luckily for the striker, he was about to get bailed out in a big way.

The equalizer was as spectacular as David’s chance had been easy. McKennie sent in a long throw-in that was flicked on by Kelly, then met with a bicycle kick by Gatti. The ball bounced just ahead of Tenas, who really ought to have stopped the ball as it bounced in front of him. Instead, we saw Gatti’s acrobatic attempt trickle over the line evening the score in style.

Within five minutes, things had completely turned on their head. Parejo made an uncharacteristic mistake leaving a back pass short for Veiga, and Conceição jumped in front of his countryman to intercept, then swept into the box and fired past an onrushing Tenas to give the Bianconeri a stunning lead.

McKennie had another chance to get on the scoresheet soon after, getting onto a cross from Conceição but heading across goal and wide. Twelve minutes later, David had another opportunity to finish Villarreal off, latching onto a through ball from McKennie, but his shot from a tight angle beat Tenas only to bonk off the bottom of the crossbar.

With about 10 minutes left Juve started trying to close up shop, giving Daniele Rugani his first game action of the season and kicking Kalulu to the left wing in place of Cambiaso. It looked to be an effective change for most of the game’s latter phase, but things were undone just before the game ticked into stoppage time. It started with a bad goalkeeping mistake by Perin, who came out for a ball into the box but missed it badly only able to fumble it behind.

It proved a costly mistake.

On the ensuing corner the marking completely failed. The ball flew past Kelly and into a no-man’s between markers, dropped perfectly for Veiga, whose powerful header was in the net beforee Perin could move.

Stoppage time went by relatively uneventfully, and when Kovacs blew his whistle for the last time, the Bianconeri trudged off the field having come six minutes away from a statement win, instead dropping points for the second time in two match hdups in European play.

LE PAGELLE

MATTIA PERIN – 5.5. Rather surprising to see him out there for his first game action in six months. He made some good saves, but was rather weak controlling his box, and ultimately carries a lot of responsibility for the final goal after conceding that corner kick.

PIERRE KALULU – 5.5. Inoffensive, but also not particularly spectacular in any way. Could’ve been better on the last goal.

FEDERICO GATTI – 5.5. It’s not often you see someone score a goal like that and end with a rating this low, but Gatti had some responsibility on both of Villarreal’s goals. He’s having a really rough start to the year.

LLOYD KELLY –5.5. Had four tackles and five clearances, and was generally ok, but also let himself get sucked into midfield on Villarreal’s first goal and missed the delivery for the second.

ANDREA CAMBIASO—5.5. Another meh performance along the back end of defense that saew him shuffle along the line. He just hasn’t been the same since that injury last year.

MANUEL LOCATELLI – 7. Stepped up huge in the second half, cleaning up in front of defense and finishing with a team-high five tackles and a 93.5 pass completion percentage. Also, would you believe me if I told you he led the team with four dribbles?

WESTON McKENNIE – 5.5. Made three tackles, but wasn’t great passing, completing only 2/3 of his passes, and he really should’ve scored a couple of the chances he had.

JUAN CABAL – NR. Got completely dusted by Pepé on multiple occasions before pulling his hamstring. It didn’t look good.

TEUN KOOPMEINERS – 4. Dude did jack s$#! today. He’s been a net negative on the field more often than not this season.

KENAN YILDIZ – 5.5. Made a few good moves but snatched at his shots and wasn’t able to create as much as usual.

JONATHAN DAVID – 4.5. Oh, boy. That miss at the beginning of the first half was straight-up unacceptable. The crossbar he hit was a little more unlucky, it was a tight angle. Still, he needs to get into buildup play more to use his passing skills.

SUBS

JOÃO MÁRIO – 6. Made three tackles and was pretty steady on the right-hand side after coming on for Cabal.

FRANCISCO CONCEIÇÃO – 7. Completely changed the game when he came on at the half. He kick-started the attack and gave Juventus a completely different aspect.

DANIELE RUGANI – NR. A surprise to see him in this one, but a good move to try to see the game out.

VASILIJE ADZIC – NR. Didn’t do much offensively as Juve dropped in to defend once he was introduced.

DUSAN VLAHOVIC – NR. On to give David a rest and probably try to be more of a target up front.

MANAGER ANALYSIS

Tudor continues to show an excellent ability to diagnose the game and make the right subs at the right time. To bring in Conceição when he did—especially considering how poorly Koopmeiners was playing—was the perfect move, and he completely changed the way Juventus won played up front.

The starting lineup can sometimes be a bit more uncertain. It’s becoming less and less justifiable to put Koopmeiners in the starting XI. He just looks lost at this point. The other very questionable decision was to put Mattia Perin into the lineup.

Perin hadn’t played a game since February thanks to injury problems. To put him into a Champions League game for his first action in eight months was questionable, and those questions reared their head in the game’s most decisive moment. He was clearly rusty, and his decision-making in and around the box had been shaky all day—something that bit the team when his mistake conceded the corner that Veiga tied the game on. Perin should’ve been given a lower-leverage match to get back into the swing of things, while Michele Di Gregorio should’ve started in Villarreal.

LOOKING AHEAD

On Sunday a familiar face will show up at the Allianz. Max Allegri brings AC Milan to Turin to face Juve before the October international break.