Juventus fielded largely teenagers, but still managed an impressive 2-0 friendly win over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium with two own goals.
There was a minute’s silence before kick-off at the Emirates Stadium for former Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, who died on Friday at the age of 53 from leukaemia.
It was a very weakened Bianconeri side full of young players and bolstered by additions from the NextGen squad.
Arsenal had a strong start, Nelson hitting the side-netting and Mattia Perin kept out a Fabio Vieira volley, while Eddie Nketiah had a goal disallowed for offside.
Moments later, Nketiah caught the defence napping and thumped the upright of an empty net.
Juve finally woke up with a couple of Tommaso Barbieri efforts before taking the lead against the run of play thanks to a bizarre Granit Xhaka own goal, flicking on the Nicolò Fagioli cross into the far top corner.
Max Allegri’s men continued to defend deep and Nketiah had the ball in the net again, but only after Gabriel had fouled Alessandro Pio Riccio with a nasty clash of heads.
Riccio recovered to get in the way of another Vieira strike from the edge of the box, while third-choice goalkeeper Carlo Pinsoglio took a huge risk when dribbling away from Nketiah inside the penalty area.
In stoppages, Juventus doubled their lead with another stroke of luck, combining with Joseph Nonge Boende down the left for his low cross-shot to take a deflection off Rob Holding and go in from six yards. Unlike the Xhaka own goal, this time Samuel Iling-Junior’s attempt did seem to be on target regardless.
Arsenal 0-2 Juventus
Xhaka og 45 (J), Holding og 91 (J)
Juventus: Perin; Rugani, Gatti, Riccio; Barbieri, Fagioli, Locatelli, Barrenechea, Soulé; Miretti, Kean
Arsenal: Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Xhaka, Partey; Nelson, Odegaard, Vieira; Nketiah