BBCSports Juventus 1 – Lecce 1: Initial reaction and random observations.

When you want infuriating last-minute results, this one is up there.

One would expect the greatest defense in Serie A to be able to finish out a game against the league’s poorest offensive team. This is what logic tells you. On Sunday night, Juventus’ defense struggled in the second half, with Lecce putting a lot of pressure on Mattia Perin after a relatively easy first 45 minutes.

After much teetering, the dam eventually cracked.

And it all felt quite avoidable.

A last move on the verge of the final minute of stoppage time that demonstrated poor execution all around allowed Lecce to score the goal they had been looking for throughout the second half. It cancelled out Juventus’ first goal in 250 domestic minutes, resulting in a 1-1 tie, the Bianconeri’s third consecutive drop of points following the November international break. And the way it all unfolded will undoubtedly irritate both Juventus coaches and fans.

It was all bad, from Andrea Cambiaso — the man who gave Juve a 1-0 lead with his long-range shot in the 68th minute — turning the ball over as he looked to counter one last time and add more time to Jonas Rouhi completely losing track of Ante Rebic on the subsequent counter as he steamed into the box. With Rebic wide free at the back post, it seemed like a fitting finale to a second-half performance in which the poorest offense in Serie A this season showed flashes of life rather than creating nothing.

Just as in the last-minute loss against Stuttgart, I can’t help but think that Perin didn’t deserve any of this. However, at the worst possible time, Juventus’ defense returned to its worst form rather than how it had played for much of the 2024-25 season.

At the same time, this is just who Juventus has been over the first 14 games of Thiago Motta’s tenure. They have failed to establish the actual consistency that we all expected following some great early performances. Some of that has been due to injuries, which cannot be discounted. But much of it has been their fault, whether it’s their failure to extend their leads, like they did against Lecce, or one massive late blunder at the back that has come back to haunt them.

It has resulted in a club that is unbeaten in Serie A, but has two more draws (8) than victories (6) this season.

And it’s precisely those draws against clubs in the bottom half of the standings, much alone those in or near the relegation zone, that truly add salt to the wound, regardless of the season’s stage.

As Romeo points out in the tweet above, that’s eight points lost against Empoli, Cagliari, Parma, and now Lecce instead of 12 earned. It makes no difference who is available or how you spin it; Juventus simply cannot afford to keep getting those results against provincial sides. However, they are.

That is why you may yell “Hey!” as often as you like. Juventus are unblemished in the league!” It’s a bit of a false flag. Yes, it is not a defeat, but losing points like that against a team that has rarely scored all season seems like one.

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It’s a stomach hit. There is no doubt about that.

It’s also the type of outcome that should never have occurred.

But, at the same time, it’s a result that shows Juventus needed to take better advantage of their early opportunities — like actually scoring rather than having two shots hit the post, including one huge miss from Khephren Thuram — and actually control the game rather than allowing Lecce to hang around. And they hung around when they pushed more men forward after the interval.

Juventus should have led by a goal or two at halftime. Instead, they were scoreless once more, a result that has been all too often in recent weeks. And it was that failure to complete that haunted them so deeply. As did their inability to finish a game that they needed to win for a variety of reasons.

Lecce is not excellent. Their only victories this season have been against other inferior clubs. So, with the Juve injury situation what it is, Motta’s players just had to grab the three points and return to Turin in any manner they could.

They didn’t, and the themes of draws have not gone away. It is also growing tedious.

Random Thoughts and Observations.
I’m thinking about you today, Edoardo Bove. That’s really terrifying.
I understand it was largely with junior players, but it was wonderful to see more than just a few of substitutes on the bench again. As I type this, I’m not sure how many of them will be used, but having a relatively full bench is a positive shift.
Three out of four substitutes with numbers in the 40s or 50s pretty much tells you all you need to know about who was available off the bench for Motta, right?
I’m simply not sure why Cambiaso felt the need to go all YOLO and have such a poor turnover at that time. You just cannot do it.
It’s good to see former Juventus Coppa Italia hero Hamza Rafia back. We’ll never forget his seemingly insignificant yet significant goal.
The xG for Khephren Thuram’s squandered opportunity early on? Oh, it’s just 0.84. I’m still not sure how he missed it. Perhaps he channeled his inner Dusan Vlahovic. (Oh, was that mean? I couldn’t resist. It’s all in jest, people.
Of course, the first idea that sprang to mind, apart from “How did Khephren miss that one?” was simply, “I hope this isn’t one of those days.” I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one who thought that, despite the fact that it was so early in the proceedings.
Just as I finished reporting about Thuram’s opportunity, Francisco Conceição struck the far post with a curling shot. Sheesh.
Cambiaso was approaching 40 touches by the 20th minute. Sheesh.
Timothy Weah had eight touches in the first half.
Teun Koopmeiner recorded 21 first-half touches.
Mattia Perin’s first-half touches totalled 21.
Federico Gatti should owe Manuel Locatelli a beautiful bottle of wine for correcting the major error just a few minutes into the second half.
Perin had hardly little to do in the first half. However, what about the first 12 minutes of the second half? He was forced to make five stops, which, regardless of how difficult they were, did not feel like a significant development against a team that had only scored six goals all season.
Turns up, my greatest suspicions about the Juventus defense failing to replicate their first-half performance were mostly correct. If only they could have altered my mind.
about as brilliantly as Nicolo Savona has started his career with Juventus’ senior team, the same cannot be said about Rouhi, the other fullback. We now know why he hasn’t played as much as Savona, and what he did in stoppage time isn’t going to aid his chances for additional playing time. That is not how to gain a manager’s trust.
I’m still trying to figure out why Motta eliminated Gatti. Unless there’s something physically wrong with him, Juventus doesn’t have a midweek game coming up, so controlling minutes may not have been as important as it could have.
I’m still perplexed as to how Thuram missed the opportunity. Would have affected the game in a variety of ways. (Yes, this is hindsight, but putting Lecce up against it for only about five minutes changes everything.)
Lecce took as many shots as Juventus in the second half. Unacceptable.
If Napoli beats Roma on Monday night, they will be nine points ahead of Juventus. Just a few weeks ago, Juventus was sixth and two points behind Napoli. Remember that? Oh, those were the days, my friends.
In conclusion, Lecce, the league’s poorest attacking team, finished with a greater xG than Juventus on Sunday night. This is so aggravating, man.

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