Juventus 1 - Lille 1: Initial reaction and random observations

Considering the simple notion that I live thousand of miles from where Juventus play their games throughout Serie A and the Champions League, I am not exactly one to have access to inside information. “I’m just a guy on the internet,” one wise man from around these parts once said, essentially confirming the notion that we are just mere fans who follow this club of ours from afar and then make opinions off of it.

But I will say this based on just an educated guess: In the next few hours and probably days, Juventus players and coaches alike are going to be thinking that Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw with Lille should have been more than just a European fixture in which they picked up a single point.

Not with the chances they had.

Not with the way they played.

And certainly not with how they prevented Lille from doing much of anything for large stretches of this Matchday 4 matchup.

These nights happen, though. Juventus could have easily had three goals before the first half, but Teun Koopmeiners was twice robbed of his first goal in bianconero (or bright yellow?) thanks to another one of his teammates being offside just seconds before the Dutchman put the ball into the back of the net, while Dusan Vlahovic saw LIlle keeper Lucas Chevalier make a great reflex save at the near post 10 minutes before halftime.

You have even two of those three chances become goals and even the latest big Champions League goal from Canadian striker Jonathan David isn’t standing tall as the only goal in the first half.

But because of this game sometimes providing Juventus with absolutely terrible luck, they were down 1-0 at the half thanks to a picture-perfect counterattack rather than being up by two or three goals and reflecting how well they were playing for much of the opening 45 minutes.

Thankfully, and I can’t emphasize this enough, the frustrations of the first half didn’t cause this team to essentially become their own worst enemy and suddenly not replicate how they had been playing. The team that played better Tuesday was very easy to see, and it wasn’t the squad that already has wins in the Champions League over Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. And so much of the second half, Juventus had Lille pinned back and it just felt like it was only a matter of time before they actually scored.

The problem was, with all of the terrible luck in the first half, Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty at the hour mark tied the game rather than extend Juve’s lead. there were plenty of chances after that, too, but one of Juventus’ biggest problems this season — finishing chances in the final third — popped up once again.

That’s why I feel like with how they played, so much of the Juventus camp will think they should have won with the way they played on the whole. That’s even when, on the face of it, an away draw at a tough ground like at Lille isn’t a truly terrible result with how they had been playing the last month after a tough start to the 2024-25 season.

Juventus should have won this based on how they played compared to Lille. And they would have with a little bit better luck. That’s just how this game is sometimes. It’s frustrating as all hell — especially when it’s in the Champions League and this new-look format is still taking some getting used to — but it sure is better than what happened the last time Juve played in Europe.

So at least there’s that going for us, right? Right ...

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS OK, you can keep wearing the yellow jersey if you keep getting results and playing well. I’ll allow it in that case. One of Lille’s starting center backs is named Alexsandro and it made me laugh every single time I heard it. Like, I know I’m not the only one who might have been a little confused the first couple of times it his name was said and subsequently went to the starting lineups to double check. Kenan Yildiz won’t be turning 20 years old until early May and is usually the youngest player on the field. That wasn’t the case Tuesday night — and by a couple of years. Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi turned 17 all of a month ago and that is just crazy to think about. Chevalier is one of the best young keepers in Europe, but he has the last name that makes it sound like he’s the heir to a massive family business in the perfume or champagne industry. Jokes aside, that save from Chevalier on Vlahovic was really pretty damn good. Manuel Locatelli was dropping some absolute dimes from long range against Lille. I dunno about you, but that gives me a sign he’s got some swagger and confidence back in his game. Refreshing to see, that’s for sure. Something tells me Juan Cabal is going to be happy to be done with trying to defend Edon Zhegrova because whoa boy that sure was a one-sided individual duel that did not favor the guy wearing bright yellow. That through ball from Zhegrova to David on the Lille goal was so perfectly placed and timed even better. At the exact moment that Pierre Kalulu is just out of reach of the ball — even with his momentum going in the complete opposite direction — is when it gets through and David is clear on goal. Frustrating to concede that way? Yes, but that was really well executed. Something that’s also well executed? Conceição’s ability to dribble in little pockets and then draw a foul like he did when Juventus got their penalty. This certainly was a tale of two halves for Conceição. His first half was mired with misplaced passes that were either just off target or trying to be snuck into a window the size of an ant. The second half, though, that was the Conceição we’ve gotten used to during his short Juve career. I’ve said it more than once and I’ll say it again: Chico’s gotta be such a pest to play against. He’s a damn mosquito that keeps buzzing your ear no matter what you do. That was a cold blooded PK from Vlahovic, too. (His PKs have been pretty good this season!) Not a bad PK to sink for your 50th goal at Juventus. Eventually one of those pullbacks to Koopmeiners is going to hit (and actually count because there’s nobody actually offsides) and there is going to be a collective “FINALLY!!!!” screamed in so many different languages. So, are we ready to call it that the Plan B to Vlahovic playing up top is Yildiz playing up top as a false-ish 9? I know it wasn’t for very long against Lille, but it feels like it’s going that way. This was one of those days where I feel like Andrea Cambiaso had a kinda quiet night and then I look at the stats and he had 97 touches and completed nearly 90% of the 76 passes he attempted. So what do I actually know? (Don’t answer that, please.) Juventus attempted 25 crosses against Lille. They completed two of them. Not great. Lille attempted one cross. They completed it. Perfection, my friends, that’s what it looks like. Juventus passes completed: 559 Lille passes completed: 261 Michele Di Gregorio’s first save was another one of those big close-range stops where you need some pretty great reflexes. That’ll do. Juventus finished with 1.39 xG against Lille. Wonder what it would have looked like if either (or both) of Koopmeiners’ goals that was chalked off for offsides actually counted. My friends, we are now a few days away from Juventus playing their final game in the 22-day stretch in which they’ll play seven games and have absolutely no rest at all. I know I’m tired, so I can’t even imagine what some of these guys are feeling like. Good thing they get to rest a bunch during the international break, right? (Yeah, about that ...)