Serie A, 29 August 2026 | Allianz Stadium
Juventus made it two wins from two in the 2026/27 Serie A season with a 2–0 victory over Parma. The scoreline looks comfortable, but the game itself was more interesting: Juventus controlled most of the territory without being particularly clinical. Its was Luciano Spalletti’s substitutes that impacted the match
The first half was fairly frustrating as usual when watching Juve. Juventus had plenty of possession and pushed Parma into their own half, but the attacking structure lacked penetration. Francisco Conceição produced the best moment, cutting inside and hitting the post from distance around the 33rd minute. Douglas Luiz also got into shooting positions, but Parma reached halftime at 0–0 without being seriously overwhelmed.
The difference came after halftime. Spalletti removed Jonathan David and Jérémie Boga in the 57th minute, introducing Nico González and Kerim Alajbegović. González immediately changed the tempo. First, Edoardo Corvi produced an excellent save to deny his volley. Moments later González smashed another effort against the post, collected the rebound and fired again; a deflection off Mariano Troilo wrong-footed Corvi and gave Juventus the breakthrough in the 62nd minute.
That was the turning point. Nico González changed everything
Juventus had been moving the ball around Parma without enough aggression. González came on and immediately started attacking the goal rather than simply participating in possession. Within roughly five minutes he had forced a big save, hit the post and scored.
It was exactly the type of directness Juventus had been missing.
There is also an interesting subplot here: González has not always looked central to Juventus’ long-term plans, yet he provided the match-winning intervention. Juventus’ own statistics note that he now has three goals in his last four Serie A home appearances.
Jonathan David was disappointing and did you expect anything else
The more concerning individual performance came from Jonathan David. Playing behind Randal Kolo Muani, David struggled to influence the match. He had an opportunity after a Parma clearance but couldn’t keep his shot down, and sections of the Allianz Stadium crowd jeered before he was substituted.
It’s too early to draw major conclusions, but tactically there is a question for Spalletti.
David is dangerous when he can attack space and arrive in scoring positions. Using him as a conventional No.10 asks him to participate much more in Juventus’ construction and combination play. Against a compact Parma block, he didn’t consistently find the pockets necessary to connect midfield with Kolo Muani.
The contrast after González entered was noticeable. Conceição was Juventus’ best starter
Before the substitutions, Francisco Conceição looked like Juventus’ most dangerous attacker.
He hit the post, continually tried to isolate Emanuele Valeri and produced one particularly good piece of play when he nutmegged the Parma defender before supplying Kolo Muani.
That willingness to take defenders on was important because Juventus’ possession could otherwise become predictable.
Without the injured Kenan Yildiz, Conceição becomes even more important as someone capable of creating something without needing the entire attacking structure to manufacture the opportunity. Douglas Luiz also deserves credit.He was heavily involved and actually attempted six shots—the most of any player in the match and his highest total in a game since moving into Europe’s top-five leagues, according to Juventus’ post-match statistics.
There are still moments where you want him to accelerate the circulation quicker, but he appears increasingly comfortable taking responsibility in midfield.
Alongside Manuel Locatelli, Juventus had enough control to keep Parma defending for long stretches.
Parma exposed one warning sign.Immediately after González’s opener, Parma responded aggressively and Guglielmo Vicario had to make two important saves, including an excellent intervention against David Romero.
Juventus had dominated, finally scored—and then temporarily lost control. Against stronger opposition, that five-to-ten-minute spell could easily become 1–1.
Vicario therefore deserves considerable credit for the clean sheet.
The second goal was another great substitution story. Andrea Cambiaso suffered an ankle problem late on, forcing Teun Koopmeiners into the game in the 87th minute.
About a minute later, he scored.
Nico González helped create the situation by pressuring Parma during their buildup, Locatelli supplied the ball and Koopmeiners swept a low finish across goal into the far corner for 2–0 in the 88th minute.
So both Juventus goals came from substitutes.
And there’s a broader pattern: since the beginning of last season, Juventus have scored 13 Serie A goals through substitutes, joint-most in the competition with Inter.
The encouraging part for Spalletti is that Juventus are beginning to look like a team capable of sustaining territorial pressure.
The less encouraging part is what happens once they get there.
Spalletti essentially acknowledged this afterward: he liked Juventus’ overall football and their ability to maintain pressure in Parma’s half but felt they weren’t precise enough when constructing combinations and attacking the penalty area.
Against Parma, the bench solved that problem. Against Milan, Inter, Napoli or Champions League-level opponents, Juventus will need the starting attack to turn dominance into high-quality chances much earlier.
This was a good rather than spectacular Juventus performance.
Positives: another clean sheet, 21 shots, strong territorial control, an excellent cameo from Nico González, another dangerous Conceição performance, Vicario delivering when needed and Koopmeiners making an immediate contribution.
Concerns: Jonathan David’s role remains unclear, Juventus wasted too many promising situations, and Parma created a couple of surprisingly dangerous chances immediately after going 1–0 down.
Most importantly, though, Juventus have opened the season with two wins and two clean sheets. In fact, this is the first time in club history that Juventus have started three consecutive Serie A seasons by keeping clean sheets in each of their opening two matches.
And considering Yildiz, Thuram, McKennie and Zhegrova were unavailable, taking six points while still looking like a team with considerable room for improvement is a pretty useful start
Forza Juve. To the next one Now
Author: swoosh0018
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