Juventus were held to a 0-0 draw away against Empoli in Serie A, despite Thiago Motta handing full Serie A debuts to star signings Teun Koopmeiners and Douglas Luiz.
Check out the player ratings from the stalemate at the Castellani
Empoli 0-0 Juventus: Player ratings
Empoli: Vasquez 7.5; Goglichidze 6.5, Ismajli 7, Viti 6.5; Gyasi 6, Grassi 6, Henderson 6, Pezzella 7; Esposito 6, Maleh 6; Colombo 5.
Best Empoli player: Vasquez 7.5 – As far as goalkeeping performances go, it doesn’t get much better than that, really. Vasquez did well to deal with everything that flew his way, commanded his area and was decent enough in his distribution, too. There were just three Juventus shots on target to deal with by the end of the 90, but Vasquez looked like he was in the mood to save everything had there been more efforts on target.
Coach: Roberto D’Aversa 7 – Empoli, temporarily up to seventh in the Serie A standings, are one of six Serie A teams still unbeaten after four matches, and four of those sides still have to play this weekend. Coming into Saturday’s game, most Empoli fans would have probably taken that as an outcome. Defensively, Empoli were set up brilliantly and gave Juventus real difficulty in creating anything meaningful.
Juventus: Perin 6; Kalulu 6, Bremer 6, Gatti 6.5, Cambiaso 6; Douglas Luiz 5, Locatelli 6; Nico Gonzalez 5, Koopmeiners 6, Yildiz 6; Vlahovic 6.
Best Juventus player: Gatti 6.5 – The temporary Juventus captain put in a solid centre-back’s performance, and was alert right until the end, providing a fine recovery in injury time to keep the scores level. Gatti has matured in the Juventus shirt, and looked composed, commanding and ready to lead his teammates.
Coach: Thiago Motta 5: – The Bianconeri coach fielded what, on paper, was not far off his strongest available XI, handing first league starts to high-profile summer signings Teun Koopmeiners and Douglas Luiz. It was only the first game back after the international break, and the first full game of the season for a few of their key players. That said, it didn’t quite click at the Castellani – Juventus were never really able to break down the strong Empoli defensive unit. They have gone from consecutive 3-0 wins to consecutive 0-0 draws. However, the Old Lady are still unbeaten, and a tally of eight points from a possible 12 is not a bad start. A testing week awaits.
Serie A | Empoli 0-0 Juventus: Thiago Motta’s stars are toothless