The referee, the Portuguese Proença, was the same, and the pitch, with due proportions, was at least similar but the result, fortunately, was very different. In one fell swoop, Juventus exorcised the ghost of Istanbul, travel sickness (his and Tevez's) and the fear of not qualifying for the round of 9. It's not done yet but we can say that we're almost there: in Turin, on XNUMX December, it will be enough not to lose against Atletico Madrid who have already qualified to go through the group. Not only that, in case of victory with at least two goals difference, the Lady would arrive even earlier, giving herself a decidedly softer draw and, perhaps, a future in the Champions League that was unthinkable until a few weeks ago. However, we will only think about all this in a few days, now is the time to enjoy an important success, less obvious than one might have thought on the eve.
“The match was good, the boys fell well into the context – Massimiliano Allegri's analysis. – Malmoe ran a lot in the first half, we didn't take advantage of some opportunities also because of the pitch. But then it went better, now we have an important match against Atletico Madrid, a team that almost won the Champions League last season. We will try to win with a two-goal difference, we want to take advantage of the possibility of finishing first in the group".
After all, the beauty of football is also this. Two days ago Juventus seemed almost out of the cup, unable to replicate what they usually do in Italy in Europe. Then came two victories and, thanks to the Olympiacos debacle at the Calderon (4-0) the scenarios completely reversed. The credit goes to everyone but it is right to make a separate mention for Allegri: the transition from the "Contiano" 3-5-2 to the 4-3-1-2 came just before the match against the Greeks, since then only victories, in the league and in the cup, and in general a qualitative leap in performance.
It was not a transcendental Juve that of Malmoe but neither was the usual faded copy of the European version. From the beginning, ball possession was clearly in favor and with a little more precision the result would have been unlocked even earlier. Instead, the Lady had to wait for the 4th minute of the second half to take the lead: a splendid throw from Marchisio for Llorente, a counterattack shot complete with dribbling on the goalkeeper and the ball into the net. The 1-0 opened up spaces that the Bianconeri could (and should) have made better use of, but this, as we know, is their main flaw. And so, after Morata's sensational crossing, someone began to see the ghosts of Moscow, where Roma made life damn complicated.
However, Tevez took care of driving them away, ironically in cohabitation with the much criticized Malmoe field: the Apache hit the ball badly but an anomalous rebound deposited it in the goal (88 '). A big party for him too, scoring away again after more than 6 years, as if he couldn't wait for anything else to unlock himself together with the team (the success away from Turin had been missing for 652 days, 0-3 over Celtic). We like to think that this is not just a coincidence, on the other hand, the Lady needs all her top players to advance in the Champions League. Better late than never, one might say, especially now that the path is back downhill.
