Jonathan David on one side, Dusan Vlahovic on the other. Lille-Juventus was decided by the goals of the most anticipated players, by the goals of the two center forwards. The Canadian number 9 confirmed why half of Europe hopes to sign him on a free transfer in a few months, the Serbian number 9 reiterated that Thiago Motta can definitely count on him. A goal in each half, the match ended 1-1: a fair draw, a result that all things considered can satisfy both as Juventus and Lille climb arm in arm to seven points.
With nine/elevenths from the team that beat Udinese, Thiago Motta presented an unscrupulous Juventus at the Stade Pierre Mauroy, a 4-2-3-1 with Conceicao, Koopmeiners and Yildiz behind Vlahovic. Kalulu and Gatti confirmed in defense ahead of Di Gregorio, while Cabal was preferred to Savona (with Cambiaso moved to the right) with the complicated task of containing Zhegrova. It didn’t go very well, far from it. The Kosovar talent was constantly isolated for one-on-one situations which almost always put the Juventus defense in difficulty. The 1-0 goal came right from his feet, literally his invention in how he went around Cabal and verticalized. But he is also the son of a light-hearted Kalulu who misread the pass from the class of ’99 and allowed Jonathan David to present himself face to face in front of Di Gregorio and beat him.
Unlike what happened with Stuttgart, however, Juventus never gave the impression of being out of the match. In the 23rd and 41st minutes, Koopmeiners had two goals disallowed because in both cases the person who provided the assist was in an offside position. Shortly after the half hour mark, more precisely in the 34th minute, Chevalier performed a true miracle by diving to oppose a perfect turn from Vlahovic well served by Locatelli. Even in the final moments of the first half, Juventus tried to rebalance the score: to no avail.
With the same eleven, Juventus started the second half with exactly the same spirit and immediately returned to grinding out the game in search of an equalizer. Lille, clinging to Zhegrova’s play and Chevalier’s saves, were unable to play with the same intensity shown in the first half hour in the second half and Motta’s team deservedly found the equalizer once the hour had come. The 1-1 goal came from the penalty spota penalty won by Conceicao and converted by Vlahovic who was good at wrong-footing the French goalkeeper who had been unsurpassed until then.
Having found the goal that rebalanced the match, Motta took off his number nine and emptied the area with the aim of making the counterattacks more interesting and unpredictable. Nothing in fact, a move that did not produce great results especially because in the end Juventus seemed to be satisfied. In the last twenty minutes a couple of plays by Zhegrova and little else: for the Bianconeri it’s a good away draw, now the table says seven points in four games.