Andrea Pirlo made the bold decision to rest Cristiano Ronaldo for Juventus’ clash with Benevento, and that backfired.
The Old Lady started the match out of sorts, and the hosts were winning the majority of the opening exchanges.
Both team’s stopped after 10 minutes as a tribute to Diego Maradona, with both sides clapping with the clock on-running, before play continued.
There was chances at either end of the pitch, but it was the man in form who broke the deadlock. Alvaro Morata scored his eighth goal of the season, after cutting onto his left before slotting it past both the defender and goalkeeper, and things were starting to look up.
We began to put pressure on the hosts, but after 40 minutes, Benevento grew back into the game, and had a flurry of chances.
Gaetano Letizia was the man to level the scores on the stroke of half-time, as our team kept fluffing their clearances, which came as a huge blow.
The second-half was filled with more chances, as both sides continued to go out in search of a winner, but the team just wasn’t up to the task.
Arthur will likely come under question again, having come in for criticism after his performance in midweek, and put in another below-par performance, while Paulo Dybala remained far from his best also.
This is not the Juventus that we have come to expect over the years, and after the convincing performance last weekend, I thought our struggles were going to be put to bed.
Does Pirlo have questions to answer for leaving Cristiano at home?
Patrick