In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Peak Performance,” Jean-Luc Picard reminds Lt. Commander Data, “It is possible to commit no mistakes, and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life!“
Juventus wasn’t completely mistake-free on Saturday night against Inter Milan. That much was clear after (another) Andrea Cambiaso own goal that gave Inter the early lead in the Derby d’Italia. But for the most part, Juve were again standing well against the league leaders. Through 42 minutes, with the score tied 1-1, they were arguably the better squad.
Then the game took a left turn at Albuquerque thanks to two atrocious decisions by referee Federico La Penna, who showed Pierre Kalulu two yellow cards in the space of 10 minutes, neither of which were correct calls — particularly the second, when Alessandro Bastoni dove so blatantly that it really should’ve been him given his marching orders for simulation.
But the red card changed the game, turning it from advantage Juve to an affair that was controlled by the home side for much of the second half. Juve endured for more than half an hour before a perfect combination of cross and header gave Inter the lead back — only for Juve to even things up again with Manuel Locatelli scored a cracking equalizer. But the numbers game proved decisive a few minutes later when Piotr Zielinski fired through a sea of legs to clinch a 3-2 victory for the leaders.
It left Juve livid, and all observers wondering just how the game would’ve gone if it had been officiated competently and had gone 11 vs. 11 the entire match.
Luciano Spalletti got unwelcome news the day before the big game, when Khéphren Thuram suffered a bone bruise in training and joined Dusan Vlahovic in the treatment room. With the Frenchman’s presence in the midfield gone, Spalletti decided to compensate by beefing up the numbers in the middle of the park, deploying a 4-3-3 for the first time since taking over in Turin. Michele Di Gregorio stood between the posts, behind the back four of Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Cambiaso. Weston McKennie and Fabio Miretti flanked Locatelli in midfield, while Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz started on the wings up front, supporting Jonathan David in the striker spot.
Inter manager Christian Chivu also had a relatively healthy squad. Nicoló Barella and Hakan Çalhanoglu were back from injury, leaving only Denzel Dumfries on the shelf. Chivu’s 3-5-2 was anchored by Yann Sommer in goal. Yann Bisseck, Manuel Akanji, and Bastoni formed up the back three, with Luis Henrique and Federico Dimarco at the wing-back spots. Barella, Zielinski, and Petar Sucic were in midfield, with the dangerous strike pair of Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez up front.
The game started intense, with Inter fouling Yildiz within five seconds of kickoff. But it was also a cagey affair—so much so that Inter got their noses in front in the 17th minute without actually taking a shot.
It was another disaster in his own box for Cambiaso, who was covering Henrique when he tried to block the Brazilian’s attempt to find Thuram with a cross. The ball deflected off of the accident-prone full-back and instead skittered toward the net. Di Gregorio was moving toward the far post to follow the pass attempt, and was completely wrong-footed by the deflection. He tried to get his feet out from under him but took a weird stab at it with his outside foot, and was only able to glance the ball as it rolled past him.
The game’s first shot came three minutes after the breakthrough, and it really should have been an immediate response after Kalulu found McKennie with an excellent cross in the box, but he put his header right at Sommer for an easy catch. But Juve kept on pushing, and it wasn’t long before their reaction bore fruit. McKennie was the provider this time, sending a cross into the box that was missed by David, but Cambiaso made up for his latest howler by sneaking around a passive Henrique, who was trying to settle the ball to play it somewhere until Cambiaso stuck his foot in and stabbed it in past an incredulous Sommer.
Yildiz came into the game as a man to watch, having scored three times in his last three Derbys, including one of many outrageous long-range shots by both sides when the two teams first met in September. He nearly had another to his tally on the half-hour, but Sommer flew to parry his patented far-post curler from the left channel.
A moment later La Penna’s collapse into infamy began, as he showed a yellow card to Kalulu for a collision with Barella that, while certainly a simple foul, should never have been worthy of a card. Thuram’s incredible back-heel flick was chipped over Di Gregorio by Zielinski, but Bremer came around the back to clear it out.
The sequence that changed the game started with an Inter corner. Thuram rose for a powerful free header that was parried away by Di Gregorio right into the path of Bastoni, whose follow-up was glanced by Locatelli off the inside of the near post … and then off the inside of the other post as it traveled along the goal line. Juve started moving the ball the other way, but Miretti’s attempt to find Kalulu was poor, leaving it for an easy Bastoni interception. The two defenders barely came together, and Bastoni, who had been booked in the ninth minute, threw himself theatrically to the ground. La Penna fell for it, and didn’t wait to brandish a second yellow to Kalulu, sending him to the showers when it was Bastoni who truly deserved to be sent off for his blatant dive. It was a truly horrific call that completely changed the match.
Juventus directors, including Damien Comolli and Giorgio Chiellini, were spotted at halftime screaming at La Penna in the tunnel as the teams went in for halftime. Spalletti had held out the few minutes until the break to make the necessary adjustments to the lineup, sending on Emil Holm in place of Conceição, while Chivu, perhaps sensing how lucky Bastoni had been at the end of the first half, yanked him for Carlos Augusto.
Juve were actually the aggressors early in the second period, and five minutes in they forced Sommer into three saves in the space of 11 seconds. Cambiaso ended a mazy dribble with a fierce shot high to the near post. The rebound fell to McKennie, who had every opportunity to blast it into the net but instead decided to try to square it to David. The Canadian was admittedly wide open, but McKennie mishit the ball and looped it over his head. Augusto’s attempt at a clearance only went as far as Miretti, who ran onto the ball and one-timed it just too close to Sommer, who might’ve seen it late but was able to get his legs out for a kick save. That rebound came all the way back out to Miretti, who settled it down for McKennie, who finally took his shot only to put it right at the Swiss international keeper to finally hold.
After that Inter started clamping down, finally making their extra man pay while Juve settled into a block to try to keep them out. They held their shape well, and neither team registered a shot for more than 15 minutes, when Çalhanoglu, who came on for Barella, collected the clearance on a corner and blasted the ball from the top of the box, but Di Gregorio flew to parry it away from the upper 90. Francesco Pio Esposito, also off the bench, had a header diverted by Di Gregorio in the 68th minute.
But, eight minutes later, the 20-year-old wouldn’t be denied. Dimarco put a beautiful ball into the penalty area — the kind you get mad at because it was such a good play by a player on a team you hate — and Esposito evaded the attention of Locatelli and Kelly to flick it on to the far post, putting it in the perfect place to avoid another sprawling effort by Di Gregorio.
But that lead only lasted seven minutes. In an immense display of resolve, Juve were able to launch an attack off a tackle by Bremer, who stayed with the attack as he, Locatelli, and McKennie advanced upfield. He took a pass from Locatelli and turned it wide to McKennie, who squared the ball back toward Locatelli, who had wandered into a pocket of free space 16 yards from goal. His first-time shot was perfect, going between two defenders and past the outstretched hand of Sommer to improbably tie the score.
It felt like that would be the end result, but the Derby always has a twist in store, and this time it was Juve on the receiving end of a shot just before the end. After Di Gregorio denied Bisseck with a diving save off a powerful header, Inter came back for another attack, and Locatelli was perhaps a step too late in closing down Zielinski, who took one touch and blasted the ball through a sea of legs. It was impossible for Di Gregorio to see the ball until it was much too late, and he stayed rooted to his spot as the ball snapped the net with seven seconds left in regular time.
Even then, Juve made one last attempt to shock Inter again, but Teun Koopmeiners could only loop a header to Sommer; in fairness to the Dutchman the ball had been put in a tough place to get any power on it. After one last launch forward on a free kick was eventually claimed by Sommer, La Penna whistled for the end of the game—one that would focus the post-match discourse on him and how poorly he had performed. The decisive moment of the game was his mistake, not Juve’s—but it was Juve who had to lose.
