Ever since the great Claude Rains first uttered the immortal line "Round up the usual suspects!" in Casablanca, the phrase has been ingrained in the popular lexicon — so much so that it inspired the ****** le of an entirely different movie nearly 50 years later. You hear it everywhere, in any context where you can expect to see a predictable set of participants.
On Saturday, a struggling Juventus were buoyed by a pair of very unusual suspects — guys most fans figured would be gone, or at least on their way out the door, by this point in the transfer window. Unable to penetrate a deep-lying Parma defense, it was Nico González who gave a moribund attack an instant shot in the arm, forcing a magical save before scoring a deflected goal off his own rebound to open the scoring. Then, with two minutes left, the game was sealed by another unlikely goalscorer: Teun Koopmeiners, who had just come on after an injury to Andrea Cambiaso and finished off a quick attack with a beautiful finish.
The unlikely redemption arcs from players most ****** umed were out of the team's plans, or at least on the very fringes, were welcome developments for a team that learned this week that their talisman, Kenan Yildiz, would miss two to three months once he undergoes surgery on a broken metatarsal. After a first half that seemed to be crying out for his creativity, it was the transfer-listed González who gave the Bianconeri the necessary spark to take Parma down 2-0 as they began to look forward to next week's big match against AC Milan.
Apart from Yildiz, Luciano Spalletti was also missing Weston McKennie (muscle fatigue), Edon Zhegrova, and Khéphren Thuram, who suffered a setback in his knee recovery and could now require surgery. Jeff Ekhator came back to make his first Juve squad in a competitive game. Spalletti's 4-2-3-1 was therefore shuffled a bit. Guglielmo Vicario started in goal after getting over the cramp that forced him off late against Frosinone. Pierre Kalulu and Zeki Çelik played on the defensive flanks, while Bremer was partnered with new signing Jhon Lucumí in the middle of defense. Manuel Locatelli and Douglas Luiz played in the midfield, while Francisco Conceição, Jonathan David, and Jérémie Boga supported Randal Kolo Muani in attack.
Carlos Cuesta lost his first Parma match last week against Cagliari, and were looking for something better here. His only missing player was former Juve prospect Hans Nicolussi Caviglia, who had to have a surgery of his own this week. Edoardo Corvi started behind a 4-4-2. Enrico Delprato, Mariano Troilo, Dominik Drobnic, and Emanuele Valeri arrayed themselves in front of him. Sascha Britschgi and Mandela Keita bookended Christian Ordóñez and Adrían Bernabé in midfield. El Bilal Touré and Simone Lontani started up front. Drobnic and Lontani were both teenagers, and the former was making his debut.
#juve #drobnic
On Saturday, a struggling Juventus were buoyed by a pair of very unusual suspects — guys most fans figured would be gone, or at least on their way out the door, by this point in the transfer window. Unable to penetrate a deep-lying Parma defense, it was Nico González who gave a moribund attack an instant shot in the arm, forcing a magical save before scoring a deflected goal off his own rebound to open the scoring. Then, with two minutes left, the game was sealed by another unlikely goalscorer: Teun Koopmeiners, who had just come on after an injury to Andrea Cambiaso and finished off a quick attack with a beautiful finish.
The unlikely redemption arcs from players most ****** umed were out of the team's plans, or at least on the very fringes, were welcome developments for a team that learned this week that their talisman, Kenan Yildiz, would miss two to three months once he undergoes surgery on a broken metatarsal. After a first half that seemed to be crying out for his creativity, it was the transfer-listed González who gave the Bianconeri the necessary spark to take Parma down 2-0 as they began to look forward to next week's big match against AC Milan.
Apart from Yildiz, Luciano Spalletti was also missing Weston McKennie (muscle fatigue), Edon Zhegrova, and Khéphren Thuram, who suffered a setback in his knee recovery and could now require surgery. Jeff Ekhator came back to make his first Juve squad in a competitive game. Spalletti's 4-2-3-1 was therefore shuffled a bit. Guglielmo Vicario started in goal after getting over the cramp that forced him off late against Frosinone. Pierre Kalulu and Zeki Çelik played on the defensive flanks, while Bremer was partnered with new signing Jhon Lucumí in the middle of defense. Manuel Locatelli and Douglas Luiz played in the midfield, while Francisco Conceição, Jonathan David, and Jérémie Boga supported Randal Kolo Muani in attack.
Carlos Cuesta lost his first Parma match last week against Cagliari, and were looking for something better here. His only missing player was former Juve prospect Hans Nicolussi Caviglia, who had to have a surgery of his own this week. Edoardo Corvi started behind a 4-4-2. Enrico Delprato, Mariano Troilo, Dominik Drobnic, and Emanuele Valeri arrayed themselves in front of him. Sascha Britschgi and Mandela Keita bookended Christian Ordóñez and Adrían Bernabé in midfield. El Bilal Touré and Simone Lontani started up front. Drobnic and Lontani were both teenagers, and the former was making his debut.
#juve #drobnic
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