Monza will spend Christmas last in the standings alone. And, we add, with a foot and a half in Serie B: because the gap from the safety quota is starting to be important, because the attackers score too rarely and because we doubt that Fininvest will make at least ten million euros available for the January market euros to adequately strengthen the team. Today, moreover, the worst on the pitch among the Brianza players was the goalkeeper Turati, jointly responsible for the first goal and most responsible for the second: it had already been noticed in his first 3 and a half months in red and white that he never left the posts and today the Juventus took advantage of this to score 2 ridiculous goals in the small area. And so came the ninth consecutive match without a win and the lack of success in the championship at home, which has lasted since March 16th (Monza-Cagliari 1-0), is extended. It didn't help coach Alessandro Nesta to change the game system, moving from 3-4-2-1 to 5-3-2, and not because Juventus proved to be too strong: the Bianconeri left numerous scoring opportunities to the Brianza players , which however did not materialize due to the limited technical qualities of the players on the pitch. The two significant innovations were having preferred D'Ambrosio to Izzo in defense and having proposed Birindelli as a right midfielder rather than a winger.
It should be remembered, for the sake of fairness, that for the match against the Bianconeri the Lazio coach was unable to use the suspended Maldini and the injured Cragno, Gagliardini, Pessina, Vignato, Djuric, Caldirola and Valoti. Compared to the team that lost in Lecce, he therefore fielded D'Ambrosio, Carboni and Pedro Pereira in place of Izzo, Caldirola and Maldini. However, Juventus led by Thiago Motta was also without numerous players due to injury: Bremer, Milik, Cabal, Weah, Rouhi, Douglas Luiz and Danilo.
In front of 15,479 spectators at the U-Power Stadium, of which around half were Juventus, Juventus immediately took control of the game and in the 2nd minute an error by D'Ambrosio allowed Yildiz to kick towards the goal but high . In the 6th minute a weak left foot from Nico Gonzalez is blocked by Turati. Monza tries to hurt on the counterattack and in the 10th minute Caprari, after a series of feints, shoots with his right: the ball grazes the post. In the 13th minute the red and white goalkeeper Turati avoids capitulation on a header from Nico Gonzalez, but on the subsequent corner kick taken by Koopmeiners he remains motionless together with the rest of the Brianza team when McKennie enters and scores the net one meter from the goal line. Nesta's team felt the pinch as they were no longer able to get beyond midfield but equalized at the first opportunity: it was the 22nd minute when Carboni crossed from the left for Birindelli who coordinated and volleyed home past Di Gregorio. For the son of art it is his first goal in Serie A, among other things against his father's former team. Juventus didn't have it and in the 39th minute they took the lead again with Nico Gonzales in the fray, with the complicity of Turati who didn't come out to at least punch the ball away with his fists. Monza reacts 3' later with a double conclusion from Caprari and Mota, both blocked by Koopmeiners. Finally, in the 46th minute, a very slow right-foot shot from Caprari was blocked by Di Gregorio with a cigarette in his mouth.
The second half sees a Monza immediately reactive: in the 1st minute we see a personal initiative by Bianco who lets off a right-footed shot from the edge which Di Gregorio dives away. The Bianconeri responded in the 3rd minute with a left-footed shot from Yildiz which was deflected for a corner by Turati. However, in the 10th minute the home goalkeeper badly blocked Nico Gonzalez's shot. In the 25th minute D'Ambrosio squandered an excellent opportunity by kicking high from a good position. Immediately afterwards Ciurria replaces Pedro Pereira. In the 28th minute Mota doesn't control the ball well and from a tight angle he shoots into the outside of the net. In the 33rd minute Bondo sent it high from just outside the area. In the 36th minute the referee didn't award Monza a rather obvious penalty due to a handball by McKennie just inside the area. Nesta inserts Izzo for D'Ambrosio and shortly after Sensi and Maric for Caprari and Birindelli. In the 44th minute Izzo almost on the goal line shoots to the outside of the net. Even in the 4' of injury time Juventus managed the advantage and in the end celebrated with their fans the return to victory in the championship after 3 draws.
In the press room, Nesta is obviously disappointed: “Tonight we deserved something more. Juventus didn't do much, but there's always something that ruins the game for us. Today we conceded 2 avoidable goals: we can't give away the goals, they have to give them to us beautifully. Then there was a penalty for us towards the end: for me McKennie's was a foul and it was in the area. Tonight we played with a new system to have more balance, but also because we are missing too many players. Today we invented Birindelli as a midfielder… Among other things, when he scored I thought that it was the day we would finally win again… Regardless of the jokes, if we always have this spirit we will have advantages in the fight for salvation. By playing like this with the 'small' teams we can win.”
Midfielder Samuele Birindelli is smiling: “It was a great feeling to score the first goal in Serie A, among other things against Juventus. Today I played in a role that I had only tried for a short time in the youth team. But we lost and there is regret and sadness in the locker room. However, the championship is still long and now two direct clashes await us. To score more points we have to try to win a few more duels in the area. We have the fans who are close to us and it's right because they see that in every match we fight for every ball.”
Motta is cold in his analysis: “We played the game to win it; we deserved the lead, but after the draw we had some difficulties; after the second goal we controlled the game, but we had to do better to close it out. However we deserved the victory. What if we gave Monza too many opportunities? Monza has quality players and a great coach because its team is organised.”
The red and white team will return to the pitch as bottom next Saturday at 3pm at the Ennio Tardini Stadium against Parma. If they don't take home the 3 points, the rest of the championship risks becoming a slow agony.
JUVENTUS FC PHOTO
