reaction and observations after Juventus 1 – 0 Spezia!

March 6, 2022

Juventus needed this win severely, especially after what happened between Roma and Atalanta on Saturday night and what could happen later in the day on Sunday.
Alvaro Morata has benefited from the arrival of Dusan Vlahovic in late January.

The Spaniard has embraced a new position as Robin rather than Batman since the huge Serbian striker signed from Fiorentina,

with some of his best games coming since the muscular Serbian striker signed from Fiorentina.

But there’s one thing that’s been missing: a goal from Morata.

Until Sunday, that is.

Morata ended a Serie A goal drought that dated back to the middle of December

with a game-winning goal in the 21st minute off a beautiful assist from Manuel Locatelli,

in a 1-0 victory against a Spezia side that looked like it could be headed for Italy’s second level.

Morata had gone nine games without scoring since scoring in a Serie A match against Bologna on December 18th.

There have been assists and other wonderful things,

but spending nearly three months without a goal only adds to the narrative of how streaky a player he can be.

Who knows what this goal means for the future

for the better or for the worse but it’s nice to see Morata score and not have Juve rely solely on Vlahovic’s brilliance.

But on this particular day, Juventus was able to take advantage of a poor Spezia outlet effort, and three passes later,

Morata had the chance for the simple finish — which he duly delivered.

At the very least, they needed to strengthen their fourth-place position and let the chips above them fall where they may.

Watch the unbelievable goal!!

This was not a pretty game, especially in the second half when compared to the first.

Max Allegri’s aims were to sit back and defend the 1-0 lead

with a fatigued squad rather than seriously try to choke the hell out of Spezia,

knowing full well that his squad is a shell of what it was a few weeks ago due to all the injuries. Spezia, to their credit, did create some chances,

with Wojciech Szczesny having to make a couple of excellent stops on high-quality scoring chances.

But, as has been the case with Juventus since Allegri took over,

they grinded out the result,

no matter how nasty it was for an extended period of time.

That’s enough for me, given the current situation of the roster and the state of the Serie A table. You can’t expect this team to go above and beyond — even against a weak Spezia side — when they’re exhausted from playing every three or four days for the past month.

On Sunday night, Juventus got the most essential thing of all: a win.

Full Time Jevntus 1-0 Spezia