Juventus 3 - RB Leipzig 2: Initial reaction and random observations

There was a point, probably in the minutes following Dusan Vlahovic’s looping equalizer that tied things up at 2-all despite Juventus being down to 10 men, that I had a thought that I really hadn’t cross through my mind in a while doing one of these.

“I have no idea where to begin.”

So much had happened up to that point — be it two very important players getting hurt within the first 10 minutes, multiple incredibly questionable refereeing decisions going against Juventus only for Juve to then fight back twice to tie the game up, the sending off Juve’s starting goalkeeper, all of it.

There was no real clarity because I’m guessing my mind was going about 1,000 different directions when it came to what I was watching — and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. At all.

Then here comes a 5-foot-6 little menace to only throw another twist into what has already been an absolute whirlwind of a game up to that point.

With one of the best individual efforts you will see from a player in that beautiful third kit at any point this season, Francisco Conceição — who hasn’t even been a Juventus player for two months — put the cherry on top of what was a completely wild comeback in Germany. The diminutive Portuguese winger’s 82nd-minute weaving run and curler to the far post allowed Juventus to beat RB Leipzig 3-2 on Wednesday night and give Thiago Motta something that only two Juve managers have previously done — win their first two Champions League fixtures at the club.

The wild comeback, which saw plenty of defensive heroics from Pierre Kalulu, Mattia Perin — who came on for the red-carded Michele Di Gregorio with a half hour to go — and Andrea Cambiaso, was Juventus’ first away win in the Champions League in nearly three years.

And, on top of that, it’s the first time since 2018 in which Juventus claimed a comeback win away from home — you know, the history of the Tottenhams like a wise man once said — in the Champions League.

It was, simply put, as thrilling as it was exhausting, with the image of Conceição laying flat on the turf pretty much summing up how probably most of us felt.

There was simply so much that happened it’s hard to recount it all on the fly. But this is what you come away with other than the fact that you’re praying like hell Bremer isn’t going to miss a lot of time thanks to that early knee injury of his ...

Holy crap, Juventus are back.

That grinta, that fighting spirit, it’s back — and I love it.

To see them do this after what had to be an emotional roller coaster and down a man thanks to VAR, well, working in one team’s favor after not even being used earlier on in the night, it just shows what kind of mentality Motta has instilled in this team already. Not at any point did they sit back and change the way they were playing because things were going against them. Instead, Motta’s squad continued to push, continued to fight and continued to try and win this game whether they had 11 men or 10 on the field.

Vlahovic proved that with both of his brilliant goals.

Conceição proved that by essentially reseting things after his first dribble attempt in the box didn’t result in much and ultimately led to his goal.

So did Weston McKennie running half of the field after playing 80 minutes of that game and making a perfectly timed tackle to start the counterattack that led to Conceição’s game-winning goal.

The entire team did it. From Perin making a couple of big saves late, to Kalulu being an absolute rock at the back after Bremer’s injury, to Teun Koopmeiners gutting it out as stoppage time approached just so that Juve wouldn’t go down to nine men against a Leipzig side that was pushing numbers forward to try and find the tying goal.

That tying goal never arrived, though. And you would like to think that, with everything that went against Juventus over the course of the 90 minutes before the 100 minutes of stoppage time got underway, the team that deserved to win it actually did.

They defended like their life depended on it. They saw things through even as Leipzig hurled shot after shot toward the Juventus. They got the win.

Somehow, they got the win.

If this is what Motta’s Juventus team will be in terms of its mentality, then that’s going to go a huge way in building something special. And it’s night like these that can give you a glimpse into what he’s telling them behind closed doors.

And seeing Motta right in the Conceição goal celebration shows you plenty of things, too.

What a night. What an absolutely bonkers European night in which so damn much happened.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS Prayer circle for Bremer. The biggest of ones. One of the few times we’ve ever seen Bremer bodied by an opposing forward and it ends up in him landing kinda awkwardly and his knee potentially suffering a serious injury. I hate this game sometimes. Then Nico Gonzalez gets hurt a few minutes later? I don’t get it. I don’t think I can remember a time — especially in Europe — where Juventus had two players within the first 10 minutes have to come off injured. Just utterly baffling. If you wanted bad omens, there you go, folks. This is quite the picture and I love it so much ... Photo by Daniele Badolato - Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images Good to know Dusan Vlahovic can get studs right to his ankle as he’s trying to shoot the ball and there not be a penalty. Not to be that guy, but I guess I’m being that guy right now — that’s a penalty and what a surprise that we have another extremely questionable call come and go without a penalty rightfully being awarded. You know what happened right before the Di Gregorio red card? The phantom foul on Koopmeiners when the Leipzig player basically fell over because he tripped on himself. Another top-notch moment of officiating in the Champions League. Yes, the ball touched Di Gregorio’s hand. But it BARELY touched Di Gregorio’s hand. Like barely, barely. So I guess Douglas Luiz was supposed to risk breaking his face instead of protecting it? Good to see these handball rules continue to make everybody confused. Vlahocic now has two-goal games in back-to-back games. His goals against Leipzig were simply brilliant. This is the striker that Juventus need even if expecting him to score a brace every night out is totally unrealistic. Whatever the heck Thiago Motta is telling him right now, may it continue. Something has clicked for Vlahovic and let’s hope it continues. Pierre Kalulu ... what more can you say? I mean really, what else is there to say about the guy? He’s back to pre-injury Kalulu and it’s wonderful to see — especially knowing just how incredibly cheap he’s making both the loan fee and the buy option Juventus have to make his move permanent. Vlahovic may have gotten UEFA’s man of the match honors, but for me it’s Kalulu. Hands down. That’s an easy pick. Juventus faced 24 shots. That’s a lot! Perin and Di Gregorio combined to make six saves against Leipzig. That’s as many saves as they’ve made in Juve’s first six Serie A games combined. Stats are funny! Honestly, I’m going to be thinking about that McKennie tackle for a while. What a huge play from a dude that, let me remind you, Juve were looking to sell all summer. Yet, there’s McKennie, sprinting his ass off in the 80th minute, to make a tackle that had to be perfect and executing it as well as you could have asked. Just a great tackle to suddenly halt a Leipzig counterattack. Nicolo Fagioli back to being Nicolo Fagioli? That was quite the quality performance from a young man who was very much struggling a couple of weeks ago. Motta clearly has confidence in him and is going to rely on him a lot this season. Against Leipzig, Beans delivered the goods. Benjamin Šeško is pretty good and Leipzig are gonna make a ton of money when they decide to sell him in the next year or two. I’m sure I missed something, but honestly it’s hard to remember everything on this day. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do to actually get some of this adrenaline to leave my god. Holy crap what a day.