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Momentum is a fickle thing in sports. Sometimes it feels like it’s building, only for the team trying to ride it to crash back down to earth just when you were hoping it would give the team that final push.
Juventus have had a horrible time trying to keep momentum going this year. They haven’t won consecutive league games since their first two games of the season, and anytime it looks like they’re getting themselves into a groove, something shakes them out of it.
So it was on Sunday at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. After wins against Napoli and AZ Alkmaar this week, the hope was that Juve would maintain their winning ways against a relegation-threatened Fiorentina side and go into the next international break with a real head of steam. Instead, they trailed just four minutes into the match after a complete breakdown on a corner. They equalized before halftime, only to suffer another defensive brain fart to relinquish the lead again before leveling again off a corner.
Ultimately the 2-2 result was probably about right given the way the two teams played. But Juve need to eventually build up some momentum if they’re to close the six-point gap between them and the top four — and right now they just don’t seem capable of doing it.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Luciano Spalletti had another player added to the injury list coming into the game. Weston McKennie and Zeki Çelik returned to the squad after their minor knocks in recent weeks, but that was partially offset by Andrea Cambiaso joining Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Khéphren Thuram, Francisco Conceição, and Nico González. Spalletti went back to basics in this one, deploying a straight 4-4-2. Guglielmo Vicario anchored the formation, with Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Jhon Lucumí, and Juan Cabal screening him in defense. McKennie, Douglas Luiz, Teun Koopmeiners, and Jérémie Boga made up the midfield line behind Randal Kolo Muani and Nick Woltemade.
Fiorentina manager Paolo Vanoli was looking for a second straight victory over Juve as Fiorentina manager, having ruined their top four hopes in the penultimate match of the 2025-26 season. Marin Pongracic, Luca Ranieri, Fabiano Parisi and Arthur Atta were all out on the treatment table. Vanoli’s 4-2-3-1 was propped up by David De Gea at its base, with Álex Jiménez, Radu Dragusin, Viery, and João Mário arrayed in front of him. Cher Ndour and Christ Inao Oluaï played the midfield pivot, while Franco Mastantuono, Pedro Gonçalves, and Alieu Njie supported erstwhile Juve transfer target Mateo Pellegrino in attack.
Juve came out of the gate looking strong, earning a pair of corners within minutes of the opening whistle, but Fiorentina picked up one of their own in the fourth minute and Juve’s marking (or what passed for it) completely broke down at the back post, where no one bothered to pick up Pellegrino — you know, opponent’s main striker — and gifted him a free header that he duly smashed past Vicario to send the Franchi into a frenzy.
Juve didn’t muster up an immediate response but were the more attacking team after going behind, even if the end product didn’t show up right away. Cabal was the one who provided the first real spark in the 20th minute when he waited for a pullback from Kolo Muani and ripped a shot across goal that De Gea managed to parry behind, before the Colombian blasted wide off the keeper’s punch on the ensuing corner.
It took 10 more minutes for Juve to pull level. A good ball downfield by McKennie sent Kolo Muani into the penalty area on the right side, and Frenchman made an excellent move to get free before firing a good low ball to Woltemade to stroke home for his first Serie A goal of the season after some good form in the Europa League.
Five minutes later, the pair nearly combined again. Kolo Muani squeezed through a pair of defenders on the right side of the box to get another cross in, only for Woltemade to this time be denied by a kick save from De Gea, while Koopmeiners’ attempt on the rebound took a deflection to go just wide. Cabal forced another save out of the Fiorentina keeper a short time later, and the last minutes of the half saw Juve clearly the ascendent side. Fiorentina got themselves a little bit of a foothold back into things right at the end of the period, with Gonçalves mishitting from a good area after Lucmí slipped in the box and Mastantuono forcing a save from Vicario. Pellegrino couldn’t keep another header down as the first half ticked into stoppages.
Both teams had attempts from distance come relatively close in the early phases of the second half, but there was another shut-down in defense in the eighth minute when Jiménez’s cross was deflected by Vicario, but no one went after the ball and Njie was able to get through the scrum and bundle the ball into the net to put Fiorentina back in front. Mastantuono charged through the lines a few minutes later but pushed it wide, prompting a triple change from the Juventus bench.
Çelik and Kerim Alajbegovic combined well on the near side moments after coming on, but the latter’s final pass didn’t find a target, then Douglas Luiz headed over from short range. But the Brazilian was on the providing end in the 66th minute when he sent a corner kick into the box that his compatriot Bremer went up for and beat both Dragusin and De Gea to head in to tie the score.
Alajbegovic’s snap shot nearly caught De Gea off-guard, but he managed to push the ball away from his goal. With 12 minutes left João Mario handled the ball inside the box, but neither Andrea Colombo nor VAR Aleandro Di Paolo did anything to punish the rather blatant infraction. Minutes later Dragusin thought he’d put his old team to the sword, heading a corner in off the shoulder of a startled Vicario, but he’d been open for the shot because he’d shoved Bremer, and Colombo quickly disallowed the strike.
Jeff Ekhator made his Serie A debut from the bench and should’ve put a header on target with five minutes to go, but the game felt like it was dying down until stoppage time, when suddenly Fiorentina sprang forward and Marco Brescianni was denied by a good save from Vicario. Kolo Muani lost a duel in the middle of the box trying to find shooting space but was offside anyway, then Vicario made another stop on Mastantuono.
The game was brought to an end by Colombo’s final whistle with neither team satisfied, and with Juve fans wondering what it will take to string together results once the international break is over.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/juventus-scrap-draw-against-fiorentina-075210374.html
