Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda...

Juventus V Genoa


This was a game that football commentators were saying that Juventus should win easily, it didn’t work out that way, Genoa were organised and didn’t try to be too flashy but didn’t shy away from their opposition. Juventus will look back at this game and view it as two points dropped and with Lazio losing to Chievo earlier on in the day, one team that will be praising the football Gods are Napoli who sit in second.

The game started off rather positive with early strike from Claudio Marchisio in the 22nd minute, but his shot just went wide of the post. A large part of the first half was like this, some close calls and near misses. Juve had another good chance a minute before the interval with Fabio Quagliarella, he was just an inch behind the ball to tap it in. Throughout the game Juve had over 60% possession but when you don’t try and make the most of it you will get punished.

Juve had recognised this and the second half they came out more determined to open the scoring, and lo and behold, on the 51st minute Fabio Quagliarella got on the end of a Stephen Lichtsteiner cross and with a little help from the Genoa player, it was advantage Juve. Yet with all their dominance of the game they could not add to it and were duly punished when former teammate Marco Boriello levelled the scoring on the 68th minute. Juve had 16 shots throughout the entire game and should have put it to bed earlier.

The Old Lady was trying everything, yet they couldn’t get through Genoa, and that was made even harder when they went down to 10 men. All Genoa had to do was to get everyone behind the ball and this would frustrate the leaders even more. There was a bright spark however, young Stefano Beltrame came on as a late sun for Marchisio in the 82nd minute. The 19 year-old showed some skill and even had the confidence to take a strike on goal.

The thing that did trouble me slightly was the fact that Mirku Vucinic had to legitimate penalty claims waved away, and one was in the last minute. It just goes to show that if you have a certain reputation, people will choice to overlook any claims. Antonio Conte may have been fuming at the final whistle, but the truth is, this game should have been put to bed earlier, they only have themselves to blame!