Everyone presumed this would be an easy win...oh how they were wrong. The first half was pure class by Juve, they dominated and passed well and were rewarded by the early goal by Mirku Vucinic, and Cagliari had some sporadic possession. That all changed in the second half, Cagliari came out with anger at not being awarded a penalty in the first half, and it looked as though the Coach used that anger to light a fire under the players as they scored the equalizer within 5 minutes of the restart. In stark contrast to Cagliari, Juve looked rather tired and lackluster especially since conceding a goal so soon after the restart, they did have their chances to go ahead again but either it was save by the keeper or went wide. In total Juve had eleven shots with only three on goal to Cagliari's nine shots with only one on target. This tells me that The Old Lady shot put in some more time on exercises like target practice.
This was not the same Juve as before, after conceding they didn't panic or give up some more goals as they have in years gone by, they attacked, but this was becoming difficult as they found it difficult to keep the ball and to perform some quick passes like in the first half, they didn't lose the spirit just the fluidity.A large part of this could be attributed to the fact that they ran themselves into the ground during the first half, that they simply ran out of steam. If this is the case they should learn to conserve their energy, to catch their breath they should attempt to pass the ball among themselves like Barcelona do, but then again there is a reason that Barca' do this so well--they are currently the best team in the world!
Another thing that I see creeping into Juve's game of late is that some players are to keen to throw themselves to the ground and hope to get a free kick than play on i.e Alessandro Matri and Claudio Marchisio. Matri could have used his strength and at least made the keeper work, instead he went to ground rather theatrically and saw himself get booked. And I have praised Marchisio for his great work ethic and abilities, but he is starting to go down looking for a free kick or some protection from the referee, maybe if he was Andrea Pirlo he would get the benefit if the doubt..most of the time, but when you are aggressive yourself and get as many warnings as he has,you don't get the same luxuries.
Juventus will look back at this game as one they would've had in the bag. Two points lost and maybe even slipping out of title contention. However, Juve shouldn't panic and look towards next weeks game against Atalanta as a game they really must win, and I can't believe I'm saying this but let's hope Inter beat Milan in the evening!
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