A lot has happened at Juventus between May 15 and the present day as we sit here a week before Christmas. The roster that faced Atalanta in last season’s Coppa Italia final in Rome has been drastically turned over, and of course the man who is now managing said squad is different from the one who lifted the trophy following an eventful night in the Italian capital.
All of that is to say that the Coppa Italia is very much back — and a little earlier than it has been in previous years.
Thanks in large part to the Champions League’s new league phase having more games compared to the previous group stage, Juventus will now jump into the Coppa Italia fray a month earlier than we have become accustomed to. With it comes Juve facing a team that they have already faced this season — although that result is very much not one to really boast about despite the lack of success that Cagliari have had in the first half of the 2024-25 campaign.
Although, there is a catch to all of this: Cagliari just so happens to be one of the 10 teams that Juventus have drawn against already this season. So, as much as these round of 16 ties have a history of being matchups that overwhelmingly favor Juventus, we have evidence to the contrary that Thiago Motta’s squad have already struggled to put Cagliari away this season.
So that basically means one of the extremely obvious themes of Tuesday night’s matchup in Turin is this: Will Juventus be able to actually beat a team that they have already draw against once this season?
It’s the first time that we find Juve in this kind of spot this season with the Coppa Italia arriving a little earlier than is customary on the schedule. And with Juventus having so many draws, it’s something that we’ll probably be saying once the midway point of the Serie A season comes and goes and the second half of the calendar begins.
It’s pretty hard to peg where Motta’s squad is at after their most recent results. Over the past week, we’ve seen Juventus battle back for a draw against Motta’s former side Bologna, they’ve gotten a big win in the Champions League over Manchester City — albeit a City squad that are in the midst of the worst-ever stretch of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career — and then rallying late for a draw against last-place Venezia.
It’s a total mixed bag and feels like a microcosm of how things are going for Motta and Juventus this season. But they will need to see that change if they want prevent their run in the Coppa Italia ending right as its getting underway. (Plus, it just feels weird having this line of thinking against a side like Cagliari that is currently sitting in the Serie A relegation zone and has won just once since Oct. 25.)
If Juventus are to get past Cagliari, they will face Empoli in the quarterfinals after the Tuscan side upset Fiorentina on penalties two weeks ago in Florence.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Early Coppa Italia fixtures are prime for squad rotation, but will Motta actually be able to rotate?
With a few players back from injury but likely unable to play anything close to a full 90 minutes, this is the balancing act that Juventus’ manager must try and play.
There are players that desperately need a rest, but with the current injury list being what it is and those who are just back from injury not having many minutes in their legs, it’s a weird middle ground to be in.
Juve manager Thiago Motta did not hold a pre-match press conference on Monday, so we’re not totally sure where his mind is at in terms of squad rotation. We know how much he would love to rotate his squad on a regular basis — just look at what he did at Bologna last year and in the early parts of this season before the injury crunch arrived as evidence to that — but that just hasn’t been possible over the last month because so many players are out.
On top of the three long-term absentees, Motta is expected to be without Andrea Cambiaso, Jonas Rouhi and Douglas Luiz, according to a report from Romeo Agresti on Monday. That means there’s no depth in defense and no one less body in the midfield. (Although, as Agresti said, Douglas Luiz’s absence seems more planned than something that has come up following the Venezia draw.)
So, unfortunately, the starting lineup is probably going to look a lot like it has over the last couple of weeks. That is just the byproduct of so many injuries and so many fixtures in such a short amount of time.
Can Juventus avoid what happened last time against Cagliari this time around?
Not just the fact that it was a draw. But also the simple fact of not putting one of the worst teams in Serie A away when you have the chance and then see them come back and tie things up.
It’s the same kind of situation that we’re seeing from this team more and more against the provincial sides in Serie A. And we have the latest example from just a couple of days ago against Venezia when Juventus couldn’t get a second goal, then saw the visitors take a 2-1 lead only for Dusan Vlahovic to score the game-tying penalty kick right before the final whistle.
At this point, it feels like Juve have drawn against teams in every way you possibly can. That’s just what happens when you have 10 draws through your first 16 league games. So now, as Juve face a side they are expected to beat and advance to the Coppa Italia quarterfinals, the fact that they’ve already drawn once against Cagliari is very much fresh in the mind of a lot of people.
That’s especially true considering all the draws that have happened over the course of the last two months, too.
Can a likely tired defense hold firm enough?
For yet another game, Juventus are expected to have just four defenders available — Federico Gatti, Pierre Kalulu, Danilo and Nicolo Savona. While we didn’t get any sort of squad update from Motta on Monday, we can pretty much guess that those who were out against Venezia will be out against Cagliari, with Cambiaso and Rouhi being the two short-term absentees.
This will be the same quartet that started against Manchester City. It’s the same quartet that started against Venezia. So, put that all together and this group will likely be asked to play another 90 minutes — and a grand total of over 270 when it’s all said and done — in less than a week.
It’s fair to say that Juventus’ defense had much more to do against City as compared to Venezia. But it’s also true that Juve’s defense allowed one of the lowest-scoring teams in Serie A to get back into the game and take the lead shortly thereafter. So now, on a very quick turnaround of just 72 hours after the draw with Venezia, we are about to find out just how much fatigue is in those legs.
In a perfect world, Motta would be able to recover and somebody like Kalulu or Gatti (or — gasp! — even both) could get the night off. But because Juventus’ injury situation is what it is and both of the season-ending knee injuries are to Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal, Juve’s sudden lack of depth at the back is resulting in some players logging bigger amounts of minutes than their manager would certainly like.
MATCH INFO
When: Tuesday, Dec. 17 2024.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. in Italy and the Central European time zone, 8 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3 p.m. Eastern time, 12 p.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: TLN (Canada); Canale 5 (Italy).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+ (United States); fuboTV Canada (Canada); OneFootball.com (United Kingdom); Mediaset Infinity (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Twitter. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.