If you were at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday night, you’d be forgiven for running all over the emotional spectrum during your time in the building.
That wasn’t because of Juventus. They rang up a 2-0 victory over a Bologna team that never really threatened to make the game interesting. It took full advantage of other results earlier in the week — losses by Como and Napoli and a draw between Roma and Atalanta — to not only put some distance between them and their pursuers in the race for the top four, but pull within only three points of the Partenopei and AC Milan, who are joint second. Considering many thought that Juve were certain to finish outside the top four only a month ago, it’s an incredible turnaround.
But all of that came before Juve’s moving tribute to the late Alex Manninger, who played 40 times over four seasons for the Bianconeri in the late oughts and early 2010s. It was a somber moment, especially juxtaposed against the elation of Juve’s wire-to-wire victory that put them five points ahead of Como and Roma with just five games to go. But it showed a sense of Juventus as a family that has felt missing in recent years. When the game was over, things felt oddly … better than they have sometimes during these seasons of struggle.
Luciano Spalletti was forced to make a couple of changes with Kenan Yildiz carrying a knock and only fit for the bench. Dusan Vlahovic, Arkadiusz Milik, Vasilije Adzic, Juan Cabal, and Mattia Perin were all out. Spalletti put out a 3-4-2-1 setup, with Michele Di Gregorio again getting the call between the sticks. Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, and Lloyd Kelly formed the familiar trio at the back. Emil Holm and Andrea Cambiaso bracketed Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie in midfield, while Francisco Conceição and Jérèmie Boga supported Jonathan David in attack.
Vincenzo Italiano was also missing a couple of players, most notably starting goalkeeper and captain Lukas Skorupski. Thijs Dallinga, Nicoló Casale, and Benjamin Dominguez were also sidelined. The Rossoblu came out in a 4-3-3. Federico Ravaglia started in place of Skorupski, screened by the back four of Nadir Zortea, Jhon Lucumi, Elvind Helland, and Juan Miranda. Tommaso Pobega, Remo Freuler, and Simon Sohm manned the midfield. Riccardo Orsolini, Santiago Castro, and Nicolò Cambiaghi made up the attacking trident.
Before the game, Antonio Chimenti, Claudio Marchisio, Gianluigi Buffon and Leonardo Bonucci helped carry a wreath of flowers to the 6-yard box under the Curva Sud, with Giorgio Chiellini following behind to lay a No. 13 Manninger jersey beside it. All three had played with Manninger during his time with the club. Juve’s three active goalkeepers — Di Gregorio, Carlo Pinsoglio, and Simone Scaglia — all warmed up in jerseys with Manninger’s name and No. 13 on the back.
The building was still likely coming down from that high state of emotion when Juventus opened the scoring.
A strong run by Boga in the game’s opening seconds eventually saw the ball shuttled across the field for Concieção to take a whack at goal, but his shot was blocked behind. The ensuing corner caused some chaos in the box when it was headed back across by Kelly, and Bologna scrambled to clear. Conceição kept the ball alive at the byline and the ball was moved to Kalulu, who sent in another one of those excellent crosses of his. David had made an incredibly intelligent run around the defenders and get himself open in the right channel, and his flicked header bounced past Ravaglia before 90 seconds had passed on the clock. It was his first goal since the first of February.
It wasn’t long before David thought he’d made an assist, too, but Conceição was eventually flagged offside after latching on to the Canadian’s well-aimed ball over the top. Ten minutes later, the Portuguese ran onto another excellent pass, this time from Locatelli. This time very much onside, he bore down on goal but was the victim of an excellent 1-on-1 save by Ravaglia. Just a few minutes later, Locatelli stood over a free kick and tried to trick the wall — which didn’t have anyone behind it guarding against the low shot — but they didn’t jump.
Just after the half-hour mark Holm came ever so close to potting one against his parent club, latching on to a defensive header with a thunderous 19-yard volley that crashed off the underside of the crossbar. David had similarly rotten luck just a few minutes before the half when he received a good pass from Conceição and fired a low shot across Ravaglia, but he gave it just a little too much spin and the ball twisted a whisker wide of the far post.
Halftime saw Khéphren Thuram sent on in place of Holm, who was seen limping with a reported calf issue late in the first half. Bologna had done precious little in attack in the first 45 minutes, but Orsolini nearly started the second period off with a bang when he fired a similar shot to David’s that also flashed wide of the far stick.
But it was Juve who finally finished a second time 10 minutes after the break. Locatelli’s blocked shot bounced straight to McKennie, who lofted the ball toward Thuram at the back post. The Frenchman was surrounded by three defenders, but rose above all of them to head home and give the Bianconeri breathing room — as well as trigger the return of a mass choreographed celebration with his teammates.
Bologna threatened to make a game of it just after the hour mark when Zortea pulled the ball across the goal and found an unmarked Jonathan Rowe, but the substitute slammed it off the post from short range. The Bologna full-back caused another kerfluffle in the box when his cross attempt was deflected, forcing Di Gregorio to protect his goal in earnest for the only time.
Federico Bernardeschi was brought on by Italiano with his last subtitution in the 77th minute. It was his first game at the Allianz since leaving Juventus in 2022, and received a nice hand from the crowd. Unfortunately, he picked up an injury only a few minutes after coming on, forcing Bologna to play with 10 men for the final six minutes. None of those minutes produced much of anything in the way of danger, as the game by that point was pretty much finished.
Juve brought the game to its end having not allowed a single shot on target, putting the finishing touch on a strong win that, with a little more luck, could’ve seen a far larger margin on the scoreboard.