Decade of Domination 9: Juventus
Taking a Look at that Nine-Year Spell of Invincibility — 2019/20
Nine years of success that had all other Serie A clubs as livid as Germano Mosconi after the third take.
How did Juventus orchestrate their historic winning streak?
This is Part 9 (of 10) on 2019/20. Click here to read from the beginning
Warning : This content may harm Inter, Milan, Roma and Napoli fans.
2019/20 : Sarri Swings By for №9
Stating the obvious, the Old Lady stalked Champions League magnificence, and she didn’t care who knew. And after bringing her five consecutive Serie A titles, Max Allegri was replaced as coach.
To further stir the pot, Maurizio Sarri — another bygone adversary — was conscripted to lead the Juve crusade. After three wonderful years at Napoli, Sarri had moved on to Chelsea and delivered the Londoners a European trophy at his first attempt.
Could the former Empoli coach bring the same success to Turin?
With fans expectant of the title, the Serie A trophy had become a formality in Turin. For Sarri, it would be about how many other pieces of silverware he could acquire which would determine his survival.
For those who have never heard the term, Sarriball, here is a quick explanation. Sarriball is a unique style of play predicated upon verticality in possession, high-tempo passing, and circuit-based football. His team typically utilises third-man runs to either draw defenders out of position, provide a clear option for progression, or break through the opposition’s defensive block.
With Leonardo Bonucci’s and Giorgio Chiellini’s biological clocks ticking, Fabio Paratici outbid all rivals to secure the defensive dynamo, Matthijs de Ligt, from Ajax Amsterdam. The young Dutchman made a name for himself months earlier, scoring the winner to eliminate Juventus from the Champions League, effectively concluding Max Allegri’s tenure.
The Transfers Out : Andrea Barzagli (retired), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma), Martin Cáceres (Lazio), João Cancelo (Manchester City), Moise Kean (Everton), Mario Mandžukić (Al-Duhail), Emre Can (Borussia Dortmund)
The Transfers In : Matthijs de Ligt (Ajax), Gigi Buffon (PSG), Gonzalo Higuain (Chelsea), Danilo (Manchester City), Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal), Adrien Rabiot (PSG), Merih Demiral (Sassuolo)
The second coming of Gigi Buffon, fresh and rejuvenated from his French spell with Paris Saint Germain, made up for the anticipated retirement of Mr. Dependant, Andrea Barzagli — who’d served La Vecchia Signora so loyally over nine solid seasons.
I Tifosi were both curious and excited about a possible transformation in playing style. Allegri was criticised for his risky, and sometimes disorganised tactics, while Sarriball was viewed as more of an artistic approach that could potentially unlock the full skillset of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Serie A 2019/20
After spells at Napoli and Chelsea, Gonzalo Higuain found himself at Sarri’s disposal once again. Paolo Dybala, after only scoring 5 times last term, needed a spark to reignite the form he’d displayed two seasons earlier when bagging 22.
Sarri’s plans in attack were of great interest considering Aaron Ramsey had signed on, bolstering an already plentiful squad which contained Douglas Costa, Juan Cuadrado and Federico Bernadeschi.
Giorgio Chiellini’s rupture of his cruciate ligament in late August was a huge blow and would see the Juve stalwart miss 34 matches. However, this was the only major injury concern for Sarri as Danilo — who’d traded places with Manchester City-bound João Cancelo — and Juan Cuadrado shared the flanking duties.
Juventus kicked off the season with a 14 game undefeated streak, the highlight being an early-season clash with Napoli — Maurizio Sarri’s former side — led by Carlo Ancelotti.
The mouth-watering bout, fuelled by bad blood and past allegiances, was dramatic until the very last kick of the game, an own goal from Kalidou Koulibaly. The Napoli defender, who’d scored the winner at the Allianz Stadium two seasons prior for Sarri’s Napoli, gifted his former manager another victory.
As the season wore on, Lazio and Inter substituted Roma and Napoli in the challenger’s corner. With just a handful of matches remaining, the Nerazzurri whittled down an eight-point lead to just one, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop La Vecchia Signora from winning a ninth consecutive title and extending her overall total to thirty-six.
Maurizio Sarri, after a near-miss in 2017/18 with the Partenopei, finally had a Serie A trophy on his curriculum vitae. Cristiano Ronaldo fired in 31 goals, becoming only the third Juventus player to reach the 30 league goal milestone.
Key Contributors: Ronaldo’s 31 goals, Rodrigo Bentancur’s 7 assists.
Best Winning Streak: 7 games. 14 game undefeated streak.
Biggest Win: Juventus 4 (Ronaldo 3, Higuain) v Cagliari 0, MD18
Leading Serie A Goal Scorers 2019/20: 31 Ronaldo, 11 Dybala, 8 Higuain, 4 de Ligt, 3 Pjanić, Ramsey and Bonucci
For the first time since the Luigi Del Neri days (47), Juve had conceded more than 40 goals in a Serie A season (43 in total under Sarri), a stark contrast when compared to the previous eight seasons where the Bianconero defence had averaged only 24.
Italian Cup 2019/20
Gianluigi Buffon started every match to spearhead his side all the way to the final where Maurizio Sarri would square off against his former employer, Aurelio De Laurentis.
The Juve strike force scored for fun throughout the earlier two rounds against Udinese (4–0) and Roma (3–1), but faced stiffer opposition in the shape of Milan come the semi-final.
Ante Rebić side-footed home a Samu Castillejo cross to send the Rossoneri ahead in the first leg, the Croatian peppering Buffon’s goal for the first sixty minutes.
Cristiano Ronaldo then levelled the score from the spot in the 91st minute, after his acrobatic shot at goal struck the arm of Davide Calabria, earning his side the crucial away goal which ultimately secured a place in the final following the second-leg goalless draw in Turin.
The Italian Cup Final, delayed after Italy went into lockdown, took place without spectators at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.
Just as he’d courageously done against Milan, Buffon kept the Old Lady in the match thanks to some sublime saves, frustrating the likes of Diego Demme, Lorenzo Insigne, Matteo Politano and Nikola Maksimović.
So the title was decided via a penalty shootout. To cut a long story short, Alex Meret saved Paolo Dybala’s attempt, Danilo skied his over the bar, and Arek Milik sent Buffon the wrong way to win it.
Juventus, for the second time in 9 years, was denied by a fired-up Napoli side — frustrated from a decade of always being the Serie A bridesmaid and never the bride — yet Sarri still had the chance to make a statement in the Champions League, which has also been delayed.
UEFA Champions League 2019/20
Dropping just two points throughout the group phase, Juventus quickly became one of the tournament favourites, conceding just four times and boasting a +8 goal difference to top Group D.
With the goal-scoring responsibilities shared around between eight Juventini, Sarri’s men played beautifully to thoroughly dominate Bayer Leverkusen 3–0 (Higuain, Bernadeschi, Ronaldo), nudge Atletico Madrid at home (Dybala), and edge out Lokomotiv Moscow twice 2–1(Douglas Costa, Ramsey, Dybala 2).
The Old Lady sailed into February’s first leg of the Round of 16 as heavy favourites after being drawn against Lyon, managed by former Roma boss, Rudi Garcia.
However, Juventus found themselves in a bloody battle — Matthijs de Ligt’s bleeding head gash providing the proof — and Lucas Tousart turned home to win it 1–0 in France.
Lyon had defeated Juventus for the first time in history thanks to a late penalty being waved away by referee Jesús Gil Manzano after Dybala went down in the box.
The second leg, postponed from March to August, would be played without spectators at Juventus Stadium due to lockdown regulations.
Advantage Lyon.
Rodrigo Bentancur’s early challenge on Houssem Aouar was adjudged to be a penalty, Memphis Depay exacerbating Juve’s problems by dinking home a panenka to bamboozle Wojciech Szczesny.
Bernadeschi then ran through half a dozen defenders, including goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, only to be blocked on the goal line by Marcelo, but Pjanić’s free-kick struck the arm of Depay and Ronaldo’s penalty pulled one back just before halftime.
With the tie reignited, Ronaldo then unleashed a left-footed drive from 22 yards into the top of the goal to take the lead — the Portuguese’s 130th Champions League strike.
Lyon’s confidence grew with each Juve opportunity wasted as Higuain missed his chance to be the saviour, heading over a Ronaldo cross in his last match for Juve — a topsy-turvy three-year stretch totalling 66 goals.
The aggregate score finished 2–2 and Lyon progressed to a quarter-final showdown with Manchester City. Les Gones had overthrown La Vecchia Signora in her own empty, unguarded fortress signalling a predictable end to Sarri’s fleeting tenure.
Conclusion
Under Maurizio Sarri’s leadership, Juventus only failed to score on 6 occasions over 52 matches. While the Tuscan won an impressive 65.4% of games while in charge, he’d still fallen short of the benchmark set by his predecessors, Antonio Conte (67.55%) and Max Allegri (70.48%).
Sarri was relieved within hours of the Champions League elimination, just two weeks after he’d held aloft the Serie A trophy — La Vecchia Signora’s ninth consecutive.
The 3–1 loss to Lazio in December’s Super Coppa Final, contested in Riyadh, meant that for the first time since the beginning of Juve’s illustrious run of consecutive title wins, which began under Conte in 2011/12, only one trophy had been acquired for the term.
Apart from the agony of another Champions League failure, Juventini had been starved, almost weaned off their steady diet of multiple trophies. Therefore, Sarri’s departure was celebrated by the majority of disgruntled tifosi and also some players.
Even Douglas Costa “liked” Juve’s post confirming Sarri’s dismissal on social media, with few players paying tribute. However, Paolo Dybala was named Serie A’s MVP for 2019–20, arguably reinvented by Sarrismo.
Ronaldo had delivered what the fans desired, accumulating 37 goals for the campaign, but perhaps the writing was on the wall once Giorgio Chiellini suffered his horrific injury so early in the season.
Leading Goal Scorers 2019/20: 37 Ronaldo, 17 Dybala, 11 Higuain, 4 de Ligt, Ramsey and Bonucci, 3 Pjanić, Cuadrado and Douglas Costa.
With Sarri’s exit also came that of Gonzalo Higuain, who joined his brother Federico at Inter Miami, alongside Juve teammate Blaise Matuidi. The Argentine was bought from Napoli, on Sarri’s watch, in 2016 after paying out the €90 million release clause.
As the Old Lady embarked on her historic quest to win ten in a row, she’d inscribed a warning for future coaches onto the walls of the Allianz Stadium locker room.
Conquer Europe or else.
Part 10 out soon.
David Ferrini on Twitter https://twitter.com/davidferrini_
David Ferrini on the web : www.davidferrini.com
