Spezia and Juventus provided a true spectacle in the Serie A on Wednesday evening. The home team, with Jeroen Zoet on target, brutally took the lead after falling behind, but eventually had to bend 2-3. Matthijs de Ligt took the winning goal twenty minutes before the end and only gave Juventus the first victory of the season. Juventus makes a giant step in the ranking with the victory and climbs from eighteenth to thirteenth place. Spezia drops to sixteenth place.
Simone Inzaghi, in contrast to last weekend’s match against AC Milan, had again cleared a base place for De Ligt. The centre-back was at the heart of the defense with Leonardo Bonucci, at the expense of Giorgio Chiellini. Juventus are off to a dramatic start to the season and were committed to getting out of the lower regions against Spezia. Inzaghi’s team collected only two points from the first four matches and has also been waiting for a clean sheet for nineteen games. The last time Juventus kept the goal clean in Serie A was in March this year.
???????????????? ???? ???????? ?? Juventus takes the lead again and De Ligt does it! ?? Jeroen Zoet has it checked ??#ZiggoSport #SeriesA #SpeziaJuve pic.twitter.com/LntrGV42Bw
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) September 22, 2021
On a visit to Spezia, Juventus had a slight dominance in the field in the initial phase, without creating significant opportunities. The first time the visitors became really dangerous, it was immediately hit. A deep pass was able to be put back by Adrien Rabiot to Moise Kean, after which the latter found the left corner from the edge of the penalty area. The lead did not last very long, however, as Spezia came alongside barely five minutes after the opening goal.
Wojciech Szczesny initially had a good bet on an attempt by Daniele Verde, but not much later had no chance on Emmanuel Gyasi’s shot. The winger pulled in from the left side of the pitch and found the top right corner superbly. The goal seemed to give the home side faith, as the lead was brutally seized early in the second half. Janis Antiste outsmarted Bonucci and found the short corner next to Szczesny: 2-1.
Inzaghi then decided to pull Kean to the side and bring Alvaro Morata inside the lines. That intervention turned out to be a good move, as the Spaniard provided the assist to Federico Chiesa shortly after his substitute. The midfielder squeezed through a forest of Spezia players and pushed the ball into the left corner: 2-2. When Spezia then seemed to settle for a point, De Ligt gave Juventus the first victory of the season. After a passed corner, the Dutchman was ready at the far post to round off with a volley: 2-3. De Ligt thus signed for his first goal of the season in Serie A.