Juventus got back to winning ways with Dusan Vlahovic providing assists for the well-worked Teun Koopmeiners and Kenan Yildiz goals, beating Lecce 2-1.
The Bianconeri transformed to a three-man defence under Igor Tudor, beating Genoa 1-0 and holding Roma 1-1, but Samuel Mbangula joined Mattia Perin, Federico Gatti, Arek Milik, Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal on the absentee list. Lecce ended a run of five straight defeats with a 1-1 draw against Venezia, with only Filip Marchwinski out of action, but switched to three at the back.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It took barely 100 seconds to break the deadlock, as Dusan Vlahovic weighted his through ball perfectly for Koopmeiners, who got down the left to drill in the left-foot angled drive from eight yards. It was the ideal way to celebrate his return to the starting XI.
Lecce responded immediately, as Nikola Krstovic’s daisy-cutter from distance bounced off the upright, with Michele Di Gregorio also ready on the rebound.
Vlahovic was also wasteful, ballooning over when a poor clearance ricocheted into his path, while things went from bad to worse for Lecce, seeing Gaby Jean stretchered off with a knee sprain.
Kenan Yildiz pulled back to the edge of the area for Vlahovic, who was accidentally blocked from getting there by the referee, so Manuel Locatelli fired straight at Wladimiro Falcone instead.
The second Juventus goal was a wonderful team move. Khephren Thuram surged forward, completed a give and go with Kenan Yildiz, then Vlahovic laid it off for the Turkish talent to sweep into the far bottom corner with the inside of the right boot from the edge of the area.
Nico Gonzalez saw his chest and volley go wide on the Locatelli dinked pass, then Falcone got down for a crucial one-handed save on Lloyd Kelly’s angled drive, doing enough to stop Vlahovic turning in the rebound.
Antonino Gallo was marginally offside when testing Di Gregorio, while Locatelli’s curler flashed wide of the far top corner.
Vlahovic almost added a third assist of the game, his ball flashing across the face of goal with Koopmeiners sliding in a fraction too late from six yards.
Lecce threatened to get back into the game when Wes McKennie was caught napping, a pull-back from the by-line was first parried by Di Gregorio, then the Tete Morente follow-up was charged down by Locatelli.
Andrea Cambiaso came off the bench and forced a very difficult one-handed Falcone save with his left-foot scorcher from outside the box.
Di Gregorio had to come flying off his line to deny Ante Rebic after a Thuram error gifted the Lecce chance late on.
The visitors got one back to set up a tense finale in Turin, as Thorir Helgason whipped a free kick into the box for the acrobatic Federico Baschirotto header, which looped in beyond Di Gregorio’s fingertips.
It became surprisingly nervy, with Helgason just failing to get control of the Konan N’Dri pull-back from the by-line.
Juventus 2-1 Lecce
Koopmeiners 2 (J), Yildiz 33 (J), Baschirotto 87 (L)
Player statistic
| Teun Koopmeiners (Assist: Dusan Vlahovic) |
 |
2' | ||
| Kenan Yıldız (Assist: Dusan Vlahovic) |
|
33' |
| 52' |  |
Tete Morente | ||
| 87' | |
Federico Baschirotto (Assist: Thórir Jóhann Helgason) |
Match statistic
Once again a goal from set pieces 😐
We need Bremer back + new quality CB so much