Juventus slipped to their first home defeat in 48 league games thanks to Cyril Thereau's second half strike.
New look Juve
There was a lot of uncertainty about how Juventus would start this new season. With Arturo Vidal, Carlos Tévez and Andrea Pirlo gone there is a feeling this will be a transitional campaign for the bianconeri. Many important players arrived to replace them, but it will take some time for them to fully find their place in the team.
Aside from the big departures during the summer, several crucial players got injured during the summer and made things even more complicated. Alvaro Morata, who was the best signing last term and Juventus’ crucial player in the Champions League, was out, and so was Claudio Marchisio, their most on-form midfielder. Sami Khedira’s official debut would also have to wait; he is sidelined for two months due to an injury in pre-season.
Massimiliano Allegri had to switch to a 3-5-2 due to not having an attacking midfielder yet. The defence of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini that was used so much in the Conte era returned, with Stephan Lichsteiner and Patrice Evra as wing backs.
Simone Padoin, Roberto Pereyra and Paul Pogba started in midfield, along with Mario Mandzukic and Kingsley Coman up front. The French’s inclusion was the big surprising in the starting lineup, as he relegated Paulo Dybala to the bench.
Juventus dominated the ball in most of the first half but without creating many chances. Some crosses looked dangerous with Mandzukic's usual aerial threat but the build-up was lacking, which was also one of the team’s main problems during large parts of last term.
The midfield looked a bit disorganised, and Marchisio’s presence was missed. Pogba was having a sub-par game and that was clearly affecting the team, with only Pereyra and Lichsteiner seemingly able to generate problems to Udinese’s defense.
Juventus continue to dominate
Udinese were not creating any sort of worries for Juventus’ back-line but their own defence and midfield were having a great game and frustrated Juventus, covering the entire pitch and not letting their players turn into space. The gameplan was being executed perfectly so far.
In the second half Juventus started playing considerably better. At the same time Udinese starting going forward themselves and left some spaces on the break. Juventus took advantage of that and generated some opportunities.
Coman played in a great cross looking for Manduzkic, who headed the ball to Pereyra, but it was cleared by the defence just when the Argentinean midfielder was about to score. Minutes later Coman found Padoin with a precise pass but the latter shot poorly 10 yards from goal.
Dybala then came on to make his Serie A debut for the bianconeri, and looked very lively upfront. His runs and passes gave Udinese’s defence plenty of chances, particularly with a superb through ball that Pogba failed to convert from.
Thereau stuns the Serie A
But when it looked like the hosts’ goal was just a matter of time away, a counter attack and a perfect cross from Panagiotis Kone found Thereau and he sent the ball past Gianluigi Buffon to score the only goal of the game. In the dying minutes Juventus threw desperate crosses to Mandzukic and Fernando Llorente but they were confidently dealt with by Orestis Karnezis and his back three.
This was the first time in the history of Serie A that Juventus started a league campaign at home with a defeat, and only their fifth defeat at the Juventus Stadium; the other four were against Inter, Sampdoria, Fiorentina and Bayern Munich.