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With many key players out, Juve were frustrated but ultimately managed to push through for an important victory. Saturday?s match between Juventus and Lazio was always going to be difficult for the Bianconeri.
Not only were Lazio playing well early in the season under new coach Marco Baroni, but Juventus were in the midst of a serious selection crisis. On top of the long-term absence of Bremer, they were missing Teun Koopmeiners, Nico Gonzalez, Weston McKennie, and Arkadiusz Milik due to injury, as well as Francisco Conceição as he served his suspension for his sending-off before the international break. Only six outfield players were going to be available off the bench.

Even after the opening exchanges, the game completely changed in the 24th minute, when Alessio Romagnoli was sent off for a last-man foul on Pierre Kalulu. After the dismissal, Juve pushed and pushed and pushed, but for an hour?s worth of game time it looked like even with a man advantage their difficulties attacking a set defense would continue to see them lose points they should have. But all that pushing finally paid late on, when Mario Gila skewed an attempted clearance of a Juan Cabal cross into his own net, giving Juve the margin in a 1-0 victory that marked Juve?s first league win at home in more than two months.
Thiago Motta had little to work with as he constructed his lineup, but did get Tim Weah and Vasilije Adzic back from injury...