Socrates

Spalletti: ‘Boga’s new role surprising, Cambiaso versatility helps Juventus’ Luciano Spalletti was ‘surprised’ by Jeremie Boga’s new role for Juventus against Udinese and insists Andrea Cambiaso needs to ‘wander all over the pitch’ to be effective. ............ It was a tough slog at the Bluenergy Stadium, but Boga proved decisive with his third goal in as many Serie A games, this time turning in the Kenan Yildiz assist. Francisco Conceicao had also put the ball in the net, though it was disallowed because Teun Koopmeiners was offside and interfering with play. ............ “The team did really well, maintaining that level of determination to close the game as soon as possible. We had also scored a second, but that’s fine, because we were up against a very strong opponent,” Spalletti said. ............ “I had never put Boga there, I always played him on the left, but he surprised me with the way he moved as a striker today,” confessed the coach. “Yildiz I’ve said before doesn’t entirely enjoy being a centre-forward because he doesn’t yet have the art of dealing with a defender who is constantly on his tail. Starting from there I think creates problems for him.” ............ “The lads did well to put those balls over the top, because if you let Udinese defend inside their own half, you’re not getting through that blockade,” noted Spalletti. “So rather than allow them to be comfortable in those physical situations, we preferred to put them on the back foot by forcing them to run back.” ............ “If Cambiaso doesn’t wander around all over the pitch, then I won’t pick him,” replied Spalletti to criticism from the Sky Sport Italia studio. “These aren’t spaces, they are half-spaces, and you need players who can find them and drag others out of position. Being able to find those spaces where they open up is a quality that benefits the team.” ............ “When we see more of the ball, then we defend better. Possession isn’t just a superficial exercise, it is used to create chances, and that doesn’t mean taking unnecessary risks. You consolidate the dominance of the game, and then choose the moments when should take those risks. We were perfect in that today, not allowing Udinese many counter-attacks that we had to chase back,” replied Spalletti. “This reflects the mentality, as tonight we played with the mentality of a strong team.” ............ . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/spalletti-bogas-new-role-surprising-cambiaso/

Runjaic: ‘Juventus have world class players and Udinese cannot compete now’ Kosta Runjaic admits Udinese ‘were not able to compete on the same level’ with a practically full-strength Juventus. ‘They have world class players like Kenan Yildiz and Jeremie Boga.’ The Friulani suffered a 1-0 home defeat this evening, as Boga turned in the assist from Kenan Yildiz to beat Maduka Okoye, the goalkeeper having made several big saves. ............ Francisco Conceicao had also managed to find the net, but it was disallowed because Teun Koopmeiners was considered to be interfering with play in an offside position. “Juventus played better, that is clear, we expected to have less possession, but were missing a little bit of quality at times. We also had chances, soccer is not just about playing better, but taking the chances,” Runjaic said. ............ “Juventus are a strong team, they have world class wide players like Yildiz and Conceicao, so right now we are not able to compete on the same level.” ............ “Juventus are a very versatile team, they are able to play short combinations, but also dangerous with deep balls from Locatelli, and one of those we didn’t defend well enough, so they scored the goal. It is not easy to protect a fantastic deep ball like that, they have players who are running deep and can receive with one touch. “It’s not easy to find the balance, we did better in the second half, but that is just one of many elements.” ............ “It’s nothing new, Yildiz played many times as a winger, so it was just a matter of time. We were completely aware about this, but were also missing players like Zanoli, Bertola and Solet. It is not an excuse, but we were unable to perform with a full squad. “On the other hand, Juve put all their quality out without any big injuries at the moment, so if it wasn’t Yildiz, then Conceicao would do something. We don’t need to look for micro-details, it’s not about this.” . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/runjaic-juventus-world-class-players-udinese/

Juventus secure important win at Udinese to keep top-four hopes alive Juventus secured a crucial 1-0 victory over Udinese this evening, keeping their hopes of finishing in the top four alive and strengthening their chances of qualifying for the Champions League. The result represents an important step for the Bianconeri as they continue their push during the final weeks of the Serie A season. The Bianconeri understand that maintaining a consistent run of victories is essential if they are to secure a place among the league’s leading teams. ............ While Juventus have often begun matches positively this season, converting those early moments of pressure into goals has sometimes proven difficult. On this occasion, however, they managed to find the breakthrough before the interval. The decisive moment arrived in the 38th minute when Jeremie Boga scored to give Juventus a deserved lead. The goal rewarded the visitors for their attacking intent and allowed them to head into the break with a valuable advantage. ............ The team returned for the second half with the same focus and continued to control large portions of the game. Francisco Conceicao appeared to double the lead shortly after the restart, but his effort was eventually ruled out for offside following a review. Although the goal did not stand, Juventus maintained their dominance and continued searching for a second goal to secure the result. Despite creating further pressure, the Bianconeri were unable to extend their advantage. Nevertheless, their disciplined defending ensured that Udinese could not find an equaliser. ............ . Read more -> https://www.juvefc.com/juventus-secure-important-win-at-udinese-to-keep-top-four-hopes-alive/

Serie A | Udinese 0-1 Juventus – Player Ratings as Boga saves the day Juventus battled to a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Udinese on Saturday evening, with a first half goal from Jeremie Boga all that separated the two sides. ............ Udinese 0-1 Juventus – Player Ratings Udinese: Okoye 6.5; Ehizibue 6, Kabasele 5.5, Kristensen 6; Zarraga 5 (Mlacic N/A), Ekkelenkamp 5.5 (Miller 6), Karlstrom 5.5 (Piotrowski N/A), Atta 5.5, Kamara 6 (Arizala 6); Zaniolo 5, Davis 6 Best Udinese player: Maduka Okoye – ............ Lowest Udinese rating: Nicolo Zaniolo – ............ Coach: Kosta Runjaic 6 – ............ Juventus: Perin 6; Kalulu 6, Bremer 6.5, Kelly 6, Cambiaso 6; Locatelli 6.5, Thuram 6 (Koopmeiners 6); Conceicao 6.5 (Miretti N/A), McKennie 6, Boga 7 (Gatti N/A); Yildiz 7 Best Juventus player: Jeremie Boga – Once again finding the back of the net, bringing him two goals off Jonathan David’s Serie A tally for the season, the Ivorian is proving to be an excellent winter addition. Created a number of good chances for his teammates too. Lowest Juventus rating: Khephren Thuram – Had a difficult first half before having to come off early in the second period due to a knock. Was not involved a whole lot when he was on the pitch but he wasn’t atrocious. Coach: Luciano Spalletti 6.5 – Will be happy with his team’s performance, and less so with the scoreline. Spalletti’s tactics overwhelmed the opposition but poor finishing of chances meant the match was a lot closer than the Italian coach may have liked. . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/serie-a-udinese-0-1-juventus-player-ratings-as-boga-saves-the-day/

Serie A | Udinese 0-1 Juventus: Boga gets Old Lady back on track Jeremie Boga scored for the third Serie A match in a row to give Juventus a precious 1-0 victory away to Udinese, but a Francisco Conceicao goal was disallowed. ............ Boga got down the left to force a tricky save out of Maduka Okoye at the near post, then Francisco Conceicao scuffed the finish on the resulting short corner and had another attempt charged down by Thomas Kristensen. ............ Juventus took the lead when another long ball allowed Kenan Yildiz to spring the offside trap down the left, holding off Oier Zarraga to roll across for a Boga tap-in from six yards. It was his third goal in as many games. ............ Juve lost Khephren Thuram to injury and Udinese wasted an astonishing chance to equalise, as Keinan Davis rolled across from the left only for Jurgen Ekkelenkamp to stumble, unable to tap in from six yards. ............ Juventus thought they had doubled their lead on 70 minutes when Kenan Yildiz twisted and turned, threaded through for Francisco Conceicao, who took one touch before sweeping into the far bottom corner from 12 yards. However, Koopmeiners was offside and got out of the way to let the ball through, so the goal was disallowed following a VAR review. ............ Udinese 0-1 Juventus Boga 38 (J) . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/serie-a-udinese-0-1-juventus-boga-old-lady/

Sono tutti della stessa famiglia

Fuorigioco ridicolo

Miretti timido

Marelli ha detto che il gol era regolare

Koopmeiners non solo inutile ma anche dannoso

Koopmeiners fuorigioco

FRANCISCO CONCEICAO 0-2

Facciamo entrare Milik .....

Palo esterno Bogba

JÉRÉMY BOGA 0-1

Si scalda Milik. Speriamo che resti incolume

Boga al centro e Yildiz sulla fascia sinistra

Conceicao coraggioso. Litiga con uno che é il doppio di lui

Serie A: Udinese vs. Juventus – Probable line-ups Juventus will have to do without Dusan Vlahovic for another week as Luciano Spalletti and his team prepare to take on Udinese away from home in Serie A on Saturday evening. ............ Spalletti’s side are locked in a battle for one of the positions in the top four, and currently find themselves in sixth place on 50 points, one shy of fourth position ahead of Saturday’s fixtures. ............ There had been hopes earlier this week that Vlahovic would be able to feature for the Old Lady after missing almost four months of action with an adductor injury. The Serbian has been in training last week, but it was confirmed on Friday that he would not be risked and is therefore not part of the matchday squad. Mattia Perin is expected to keep hold of his place between the sticks, with Michele Di Gregorio still out of favour after a series of disappointing displays across this season. Only Inter’s Lautaro Martinez has scored more goals in Serie A this season than Udinese striker Keinan Davis, who sits in joint-second in the league’s goalscoring charts along with an impressive list of names: Kenan Yildiz, Rafael Leao, Nico Paz, Rasmus Hojlund and Anastasios Douvikas, all of whom have nine so far. Davis is expected to start alongside Nicolo Zaniolo in attack on Saturday. Kick-off is due at 19.45 GMT. Udinese vs. Juventus: Probable line-ups Udinese (3-5-2): Okoye; Kristensen, Kabasele, Mlacic; Ezihibue, Piotrowski, Karlstrom, Atta, Kamara; Davis, Zaniolo. Juventus (4-2-3-1): Perin; Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly, Cambiaso; Locatelli, Thuram; Conceicao, McKennie, Boga; Yildiz. ............ . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/serie-a-udinese-juventus-probable-line-ups/

Round 29: Udinese vs. Juventus match preview For the first time, Juventus had a good weekend in Serie A a few days ago. Not just because they won their first league fixture since the first day of February, but also because they won and got a little bit of help from an unlikely source when things were looking like they were going to remain status quo after the first weekend of March. And now as we work our way to mid-March and the first international break of 2026, Juventus has the chance to get even more help — and that is because those two teams directly in front of them will be lining up against one another a little less than 24 hours after the Bianconeri take the field in Udine. Juventus are currently in sixth place entering the weekend. The catch is that they are just a point off Roma in fourth place. And Roma is just ahead of fifth-place Como only because of goal differential. That means with a Juventus win against Udinese on Saturday night a draw between Roma and Como all of 24 hours later and Luciano Spalletti’s squad is back in the driver’s seat with less than 10 league games to go in the 2025-26 season. It’s easy to write it all down on paper and imagine how good things can happen, but Juventus are in another position to win and then get some more help from some “friends” later on in the weekend. That is if they take care of their own business, of course. ............ But to do so against a Udinese team that they’ve already beaten twice this season. You know what they say about trying to beat the same team three times in one season … Ah, we won’t all into a bunch of clichés here, but those two games were both in Turin. This one, as you can probably figure out, will be at the Friuli — a place where Udinese has just five wins in 14 games so far this season. But as Roma can tell you, just because you see Udinese is very much mid-table both when playing on their home field and on the whole this season, that doesn’t mean it’s a simple three points to take back home. And guess who has just as many wins in Serie A since the start of February? Yeah, that’s the team that Juventus will be lining up against on Saturday night. That’s more to do with how Juve’s played over these past few weeks rather than Udinese being some kind of force domestically since the last time these two teams met in the opening rounds of the Spalletti era in Turin. ............ Udinese has the potential to be a trap game regardless of Juventus having an entire week to rest up, get healthy-ish and prepare for one opponent rather than having the UCL Round of 16 dominating their thoughts. (If only, right?) Juve have dominated this matchup in recent years. They’ve won their last two visits to Udine by a combined score of 5-0. It’s the kind of game that can either be another step in what we all hope is the right direction heading into late March. Or it can be Juventus frustrating the hell out of us yet again since the beginning of February. If Juventus can win in Udine and make it back-to-back victories for the first time in nearly two months, then they will hopefully get to enjoy their Sunday and watch Roma and Como square off. Put the pressure on those in front of you — that’s all we can ask right now. And you do that by winning. TEAM NEWS Even though Spalletti didn’t hold a pre-match press conference on Friday, the big team news to come out of Continassa ahead of the team leaving for Udine is that Dusan Vlahovic will not be called up as he works his way back from adductor surgery. There is a good chance, as of this writing, that there a striker making a return from injury and being included in the traveling squad. That’s right — it’s Arek Milik, who could very well be part of the squad for Saturday night’s game. ............ Mattia Perin is expected to keep his starting spot in goal for Juventus in place of Michele Di Gregorio. Perin has started the last three games in all competitions, with Spalletti suggesting last week that he still has faith in both of his keepers regardless of all the outside noise that may be taking place. Weston McKennie is once again a yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension. (Considering the big games that are awaiting Juventus after the international break, maybe he could get it out of the way now? Just an idea, not a suggestion. Or maybe it is.) JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH Starboy. Not just because we could do that literally every single time I sit down to write one of these pieces. But because Spalletti has given the Italian plenty of reasons to speculate when it comes to the setup he might go with thanks to his moves during the second half of last weekend’s win over Pisa. So, we ask the question a lot of people are probably asking (and one they couldn’t ask Lucio himself considering he didn’t have a pre-match press conference): Will Kenan Yildiz play as a false 9 or his usual spot on the left wing? ............ But the very fact that nobody knows for sure where Yildiz is playing probably means the door is at least somewhat open to Spalletti playing Yildiz as a false 9 from the start. We remember the last time that happened a few months back and things didn’t exactly go all that well. (Even if Yildiz did score in that game to at least give his team a chance at picking up some points against the reigning Serie A champions.) ............ The thing is, what Yildiz was able to do playing in a free-roaming kind of role like he did last weekend is at least an interesting thing for Spalletti to consider. It likely gets him closer to goal even though he could very well find less space to operate against a compact defense like Udinese could very well be. There’s some good in that, but there’s also some not-so-good as well. It’s really what Spalletti has to consider when deciding where to play Yildiz on Saturday night. There’s also this to consider: Are Juventus a better team with Yildiz up front as a false 9 or sticking with David in the starting lineup in his usual spot? These days, it’s hard to really know — and that’s a big part of the problem. MATCH INFO When: Saturday, March 14, 2026. Where: Bluenergy Stadium, Udine, Italy. Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3:45 p.m. Eastern time, 2:45 p.m. Central time, 12:45 p.m. Pacific time. Read more -> https://www.blackwhitereadallover.com/previews-reviews/37115/udinese-juventus-2026-serie-a-matchday-29-preview-team-news-schedule-how-to-watch

Conceicao: Juventus ‘stronger’ than Roma and Como, ‘Every team wants Bernardo’ Francisco Conceicao believes that Juventus are ‘stronger’ than Roma and Como as the three sides look set to do battle over one spot in the Serie A top four, and says that ‘every team’ would want to have his compatriot Bernardo Silva in their side: ‘He’s a great player’. Conceicao sat down in front of the media for the pre-match press conference ahead of Juventus’s upcoming Serie A match away against Udinese. Head coach Luciano Spalletti has made a habit of sending one of his senior players in to do the Serie A pre-match press conferences in recent weeks. ............ The month of February was one to forget for Juventus, who slipped to defeats against Atalanta, Inter, Galatasaray and Como across the Coppa Italia, Serie A and Champions League. The defeats against Como and Galatasaray in the cups have ended any hopes of silverware for the Old Lady this season, and those against Inter and Como have made a top-four finish considerably more of a challenge. ............ “I think that the strength of the group is the basis for everything we do. We’ve shown that many times in the past,” Conceicao told the media during his pre-match press conference on Friday. “During the week, we work on becoming stronger and we all have to improve individually, and that’s what we’ve done. We work on all the details that the coach wants to improve. “We’re playing very well at the moment, but we have even more potential to show. Now we have to win to achieve our goals.” On the upcoming opposition, Conceicao added: “Udinese are a strong team and even more so at home. We know that they’re particularly strong up front and strong in general, but we go to Udine wanting to win.” ............ “I know Bernardo Silva very well and he’s a great player,” said Conceicao. “Every team would like to have Bernardo in their side.” “All teams are stronger when all the players are fit,” said Conceica. “Dusan is very strong and is missing from our team at the moment. He’s getting better and better and we hope that he comes back well from his injury.” And on Spalletti, he said: “The coach has brought us a lot of things. We play well, we have the quality to do even better and prove it. You can see that the team plays with happiness, and plays well. We try to dominate the game and all the players like that, particularly those up front. We create a lot of chances but we have to do more and continue working hard to try and win in every game.” Conceicao was also asked which of Juventus, Roma or Como he feels are the most likely to finish the 2025-26 season in the Serie A top four. “I’d say Juve, I don’t care about which of the others make it. I care that we are there and that’s what we’re working for. “We know we have the quality to stay (in the Champions League). We have to work hard and win the game tomorrow. We have to stay in the Champions League, we have the quality to do it. “For me, we’re stronger, but we have to show it. We have to win to stay up there and we have to prove ourselves.” . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/conceicao-juventus-stronger-than-roma-and-como/