Juventus 1 – Udinese 0: Initial reaction and random observations

You’d be kidding yourself if you weren’t sitting there thinking the same kind of things that you were when Juventus face Cremonese on Wednesday night.

Juventus are in position to drop points in a game in which its performance wasn’t all that great. We were preparing the pitchforks to storm the house because Juve can’t afford any dropped points these days. And, all at the same time, frustrating the living hell out of you because they’ve put themselves in this kind of position again.

Ah, but here’s the thing about this Juve team ever since the middle of October — they’re just finding away.

It wasn’t as late as things were against Cremonese, but it was awfully, awfully close in the first game at Allianz Stadium of 2023. A few seconds of absolute brilliance from second-half substitutes Leandro Paredes and Federico Chiesa set things up for captain Danilo, who slotted home the only goal of Saturday night’s 1-0 victory over Udinese that extended Juventus’ winning streak (and clean sheet streak) to eight games. Just when you didn’t think they were gonna pull another rabbit out of their hat, there was Mad Max raging on the sidelines as he did just that for the second time in a four-day span.

And as Juve honored the passing of one of their most well-known and beloved captains in Gianluca Vialli before kickoff, it was the man who has taken over the captain’s armband in recent months

So now as Juventus close out the day all of four points behind Napoli and into second place ahead of Milan — with both of those teams playing Sunday night — things are getting very, very interesting when it comes to the Serie A table. Was this overall performance anything to really write home about? No, not really. Juve created a bunch of chances but it’s not like Udinese keeper Marco Silvestri was having to make save after save after save like we saw Marco Carnesecchi having to do a few days earlier. (Silvestri only made three saves all night.)

But when things were becoming a little desperate with the final minutes of regular time very much present, Juve got the moment of magic they needed.

The ball over the top to Chiesa from Paredes. The control by Chiesa to bring the ball down with his chest as he’s moving toward the end line. The pass by Chiesa with the outside of his right foot after bringing the ball down and doing all of this is in fluid motion. And, finally, Chiesa fitting said cross through perfectly to Danilo, who slammed his shot into the roof of the net from point blank range.

It was a beautiful team goal.

it was most definitely a much-needed goal.

It just kinda feels like the type of goal and win that you get when things are breaking your way and you just in the midst of a roll that Juventus are currently enjoying. Maybe in August or September this is the type of game in which Juve did drop points in. (And honestly, we’ve probably seen a few of those already this season.) But now? The vibe around this team is changing even if the overall performances aren’t exactly coming close to lighting the world on fire.

But they’ve won eight straight games, everybody. Bet you didn’t think that was possible when this team was crashing and burning and losing to Monza before the September international break.

It’s curto muso time again, my friends. Let’s ride this winning streak as long as we can.