Juventus 0 - Stuttgart 1: Initial reaction and random observations

There were a few moments where you thought that maybe, just maybe, Juventus could get something out of Tuesday night’s Champions League matchup against Stuttgart even though they were very much not up to snub with their German opposition. Juve were bending but not breaking, with a whole lot of that due to the fact that Mattia Perin was simply playing out of his mind in goal.

Even down to 10 men, they bent as much as you could, only for Perin to literally save them once again.

But leave it to a guy who has called Bergamo home within the last calendar year to be the one who finally broke the dam no matter how good Perin had been for the previous 92 minutes.

Juventus’ unbeaten run to begin the Thiago Motta is now something we will talk about in the past tense, my friends. Juve were able to hold on for 91 minutes against a team they were very much not playing as well as, but substitute El Bilal Touré — who is only loan from Atalanta — finished off a ping-pong-like combination of passes from Stuttgart outside the Juventus box to give the German side their long-sought 1-0 lead and the win over Motta’s side at the Juventus Stadium. It was the kind of result, based on how each team performed, that was certainly the right kind of outcome. Because, let’s face it, Juventus did not play well at all outside of a few moments in the second half when things looked like they were finally starting to turn for the better.

But they didn’t, and somebody like Perin was left to kick the water bottle just to the left of his goal out of utter frustration rather than be mobbed by his teammates because Juve somehow scraped through with a point in a game they probably shouldn’t have gotten a result in.

To add a little more salt in the wound: This marked Stuttgart’s first win in the Champions League since 2009 and Juve’s first loss this season after going 10 games unbeaten in all competitions.

That’s tough. That’s really, really tough — more so how they lost rather than them losing because, as much as he hate to see it, losses will happen no matter what.

Let’s face it: Juventus did not play well. They didn’t. It’s that simple. No matter if it had to do with how they were defending, the midfield getting run over or struggling to create scoring chances, Juventus were very much not good in any of it — at all. Stuttgart, to their credit, came into Juve’s home stadium and played their game. They did it from the opening whistle and were the better team from the first minute until the last. Juventus, struggled to gain any sort of long-standing momentum — especially in the opening 45 minutes — to try and slow down a Stuttgart side that was clearly nowhere near the team that got steamrolled by Bayern Munich over the weekend.

Since we like to have fun with stats around here, let’s roll this out:

Stuttgart’s xG was 2.44 Juventus’ xG was 0.24

That ... that’s not good. That’s not good at all. Stuttgart, in a lot of ways, controlled the game from start to finish. And in a season in which shot creation — as well as shot finishing — has been one of the biggest problems, those cries for something to change for the better won’t be quieted down much when you like and see Juve’s first shot on goal didn’t happen until the ... checks notes ... 67th minute off the right foot of Kenan Yildiz.

Juventus failed to slow Stuttgart down much at all. (And this was the version of Stuttgart where you could understand why they gave Real Madrid a run for their money before a couple of late second-half goals swung it in the Spanish giants’ favor.) Juve’s midfield was missing for large swaths. Juve’s front four just looked to be out of sync outside of a few moments. The passing, again, just let Juve down and also caused a whole lot of problems with Stuttgart’s counterattack or gift-wrapping the Germans a short field.

It was not pretty. It really wasn’t.

And, as I write this, I can’t help but think that this could have — and maybe should have — been a lot worse than 1-0 loss to an opponent who made you look pretty bad in the process.

Or, we can just let Perin, the best player on the field on the night, say what a lot of us are feeling: “Stuttgart put us in difficulty and we were unable to get out of it.”

Preach, my friend. Preach and tell it to those in the back because that is the truth and nothing but the truth.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS Justice for the man pictured below. He deserved absolutely no of this. He deserved to celebrate after the final whistle and to be drowned in praise from everybody. Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images This man deserved a shutout and to be heaped in praise. Instead, he had to deal with seeing Stuttgart scoring a goal in stoppage time and hold the Man of the Match knowing full well that’s about as frustrating as a way to “celebrate” such honor. Seriously, though, that penalty save and the celebration that came with it was just such a joy to watch. What led to the penalty call was not fun, but seeing Perin make that save and then spin right around and scream what surely had to be nothing but (happy) cuss words at the curva was such a moment. Perin finished with nine saves. Nine! That’s almost as many (10) as Michele Di Gregorio has made in his eight starts this season in all competitions. It’s also a clear sign of just how much Juventus was living on the edge for much of the night. Sure, a few of those saves were not all that challenging for a keeper of Perin’s skill level, but surrendering that many shots on goal just shows Stuttgart were more than just a little effective in how they were able to create opportunities in the final third. By the way, you knew immediately after the first replay of that Danilo tackle attempt that it was going to go to VAR and then result in a Stuttgart penalty. There really was no way to try and spin it through our Juventus-colored glasses. That was the right call. It really was a fitting capper to Danilo’s night, too. This was not a good night for Juve’s captain on multiple levels, and seeing him shown a second level and give away a penalty with a very preventable tackle attempt — studs into a guy’s thigh ... really? — is just a sick kind of sick chef’s kiss moment. Clearly there had to be something up with Federico Gatti because playing an out-of-form and rusty Danilo just continued to be a bad thing. Even Pierre Kalulu couldn’t Stuttgart from scoring and saw Touré fly right by him as he tried a last-ditch tackle. Or something like that. I guess it was a tackle attempt? I’m still not sure. This game (and result) very much magnifies the fact that Motta does not have an alternative to Dusan Vlahovic that he can turn to when the game is calling for it. Vlahovic was not good against Stuttgart, sure, but there’s also little that Motta could do to try and fix that in the second half. Right now, it’s just feeling like Motta is seeing if anything can stick as a Plan B to Vlahovic when things aren’t working for the big Serb. I’m guessing Francisco Conceição didn’t have the legs to go a full 90 as to why Motta decided to pull him when he did? It’s just kinda ironic that it came literally seconds after he went on one of his best runs on the night, drew a foul and showed his explosive ability to make things happen in quick fashion. Juventus completed just one of the 15 crosses they attempted. Not good! Juventus also just didn’t pass the ball we at all. That’s also not very good, folks. Not one Juve midfielder that started the game had a pass completion percentage higher than 86%. That’s, as you may guess, is also not good. At least things were a little better when Manuel Locatelli came on, but even then things weren’t great. I’m surprised Khephren Thuram could walk to the bench because that guy looked absolutely gassed for much of the second half. The problem was, there was no midfielder on the bench to replace him. Lost in all of this is the fact that Douglas Luiz’s strong start to his Juventus career continued. And he didn’t even have to play a single second to confirm that. I miss when this Juve squad had some depth. Now they just look tired. That’s always what you want to think going into a big weekend, right? Oh. Personally, I am not a fan of Juventus playing games on my birthday. Doesn’t matter what the result is. Hell, they won last year! Now it’s over to the Derby d’Italia. There won’t be any storylines there, I bet! Ha. Ha. Ha.