Juventus 1 – Frosinone 0: Initial reaction and random observations
· Yahoo Sports
Winning at Frosinone, on their return to Serie A, was never going to be as easy as it seemed. But then, after the opening 45 minutes or so of Sunday’s season opener, you were left with a lingering feeling of the not-so-distant past when it comes to Juventus facing provincial sides along the peninsula.
It goes a little something like this: They’ve got the lead, but how much will their inability to score more actually cost them in the end?
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The final verdict was not nearly as much as it could have, but there was only so much room left for error when it was all said and done.
Juventus beat newly promoted Frosinone 1-0 thanks to Gleison Bremer’s powerful first-half header, but it was a much different kind of story after the halftime interval. There was no carryover of some promising play during the opening 45 minutes, and Juve’s inability to score on either end of Bremer’s big header in the 22nd minute nearly cost them in the closing minutes of stoppage time. The only thing that prevented it was the frame of the goal that Frosinone was attacking, leaving us to all breathe a sigh of relief — or at least try as our blood pressure spiked at the some time — and Juve to hang on for the win.
It was a win. It’s the first three points in a new season.
But, at the same time, there were some same old problems that were still very much at the forefront of things.
Is it reason for worry? Or is it the fact that it’s Matchday 1 not have you smashing the panic button before the month of September actually arrives?
Outside of those chances that Juventus — most notably the new big-money man Randal Kolo Muani — didn’t actually put away in the first half, there was some good things happening. The problem was, they were only up 1-0 and could have very much led by more than just one goal. It all sounds familiar, doesn’t it? They were creating chances — and some very good ones, too! — but they just couldn’t finish them outside of Bremer’s goal.
It all led to a second half that probably shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Frosinone pressed more, Juventus’ pace slowed and the chances that they couldn’t put away before the break loomed even larger is time went on. I know I wasn’t the only one who had that sinking feeling that doom may have been on the horizon with a Frosinone equalizer after the 75th or 80th minute only soon to arrive.
Thankfully, it didn’t.
The overall product wasn’t impressive, nor was it leaving you with the kind of overwhelming feeling after the first 90 minutes that Luciano Spalletti’s is on the right track to a top four finish and there would be nothing to tell you otherwise. Maybe little signs here or there, but nothing that blew you away or thought that this team was much changed from the season before.
But that’s the thing with the first weekend of a new season. You can either see a big win as a start of something new, you can see Juventus winning the way they did on Sunday and think it’s just more of the same, or you can see your team tumble and have a sinking feeling already set in. It’s all the by-product of the silliness that comes with the small sample sizes we’re dealing with right now. We don’t want to read too much into friendlies, but then the games count for real and it all changes, right?
Honestly, I’m just glad Juventus won and three points are in the bag in the first weekend of the new season. We can chat some more once the transfer window closes and these issues are still lingering close to my 40th birthday in October. (I hope they’re not, that’s for sure!)
RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS
- Welcome back to Juventus, the club that makes you stress right out of the gate against a team that will probably be fighting not to get relegated a few months from now. We are truly back — at least the not-great version of Juventus, that is.
- Andrea Cambiaso coming on in the latter stages of a 1-0 game as you’re trying to see out a win? I dunno about that one, Lucio. Zeki Celik might have needed a sub, but that’s not the defensive reenforcement that I would have gone with.
- What watching Juventus holding a 1-0 lead against a newly promoted side feels like:
Non mi sento troppo bene#FrosinoneJuve#jvtblive
— FedePar (@FedericaPar) August 23, 2026
- This feels like something that would come up on the Football Cliches Podcast, but I will ask it anyway: As they were going through the Juventus starting lineup graphic, the announcer said that Kolo Muani was making “his second debut” at the club. Can you make a “second debut”? That feels like something that’s not possible once you make your first debut at a club.
- Frosinone with nine Italians in the starting lineup. In this economy?! (Somebody had to say it…)
- Douglas Luiz with the most ground covered in the first half? Didn’t have that on my bingo card.
- On the whole, though, that was quite the positive first start back at Juventus for Douglas Luiz, I’d say. At the very least, he’s already one-third of the way to matching the number of Serie A starts he made during his first season with Juventus two years ago.
- Guglielmo Vicario survived the First Shot On Goal curse. Congratulations on passing your first test, Vic.
- His second save of the day was then a nice stop at the near post. Hooray for the new guy! (Yes, I understand that he still very much has a lot of convincing to do, but it’s much better than the last guy, so it’s a start.)
- Thankfully it only sounds like Vicario was dealing with some cramping late in the game that forced him to come off for Mattia Perin. So hey, Perin’s move to Palermo is probably still on at this point.
- But it’s been a while since we’ve had a non-Pinso late-game goalkeeper sub, so that was quite the interesting sight during a second half in which we were all already quite nervous about what could happen.
- Can you imagine if Perin came on and then Frosinone immediately scored? My goodness.
- Yes, Kolo Muani deserves some criticism for his lack of finishing touch in this game. That’s fine. I’ll be right there with you. I am just willing to give him a little grace in the bigger picture of things because, for now, we have absolutely no idea where his match sharpness actually is considering he’s been with Juventus for all of three weeks and he was previously training with PSG’s U-19 team before he moved back to Turin (for his second debut).
- And to be fair to Kolo Muani, he was in position for those chances. Can we say the same about the last guy who wore the No. 9 at Juventus all the time? Hopefully a little more time and Kolo Muani is up to speed and has a little more confidence going in his game.
- It was an overall quiet game for Kenan Yildiz. That is certainly not what you wanted to see both at the stadium where he scored his first senior goal and just with how the season ended in the spring with concerns about the status of his lingering knee issue. It’s one game, but it sure would be nice to see a much more lively Yildiz when Juventus face Parma in their home opener on Saturday.
- Was this a classic kind of Chico Conceição game? He did some really good things. He set up Bremer’s goal and then he did some things that would just frustrate the living hell out of you. Chico gonna Chico.
- Pierre Kalulu — just calm, cool and pretty dang good.
- If a new season meant the return of the old Bremer — or at least the first signs of it — then this seemed like it. Not only did he score a classic kind of header, but he just looked so much better defensively. There was a lot more calm to his game, a lot more smoothness to his defending. Outside of unfortunately taking out Celik with a little friendly fire, it was a pretty dang good season debut from the most important defender Juventus has on its roster.
- A tight 1-0 game didn’t feel like the right time to hand Kerim Alajbegović his Juventus debut. Maybe in front of the home crowd next weekend. That would be nice!
- I really enjoyed the sideline shots of Spalletti going back and forth between the full suit look and then the one with him with the jacket off a few minutes later only for him to then go back to wearing the jacket. He’s a man who doesn’t lack for style. (He also looks incredibly tan these days!)
- Juve finished with 1.99 xG. Shoulda been more than 1-0, folks.
- But that’s not breaking news. I’m just hoping that this is not something we talk about every single weekend because that sure is something that doesn’t need to hang over this team every game.
- Cheers to the weekend. The bourbon will be back and not for any bad reasons — for now.