Juventus needed a quickfire brace from Randal Kolo Muani, his third goals in just two games, to overturn Empoli, Dusan Vlahovic and Francisco Conceicao making it harsh on 10 men.
The Bianconeri were feeling the pressure after back-to-back defeats to Napoli and Benfica, plus Pierre Kalulu, Andrea Cambiaso, Arek Milik, Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal injured. Kolo Muani again started after scoring on his debut, while Renato Veiga was thrown straight into the starting XI. Empoli had two points from the last seven games, with Alberto Grassi and Giuseppe Pezzella suspended, Nicolas Haas, Tyronne Ebuehi, Saba Sazonov and Pietro Pellegri not making the trip. Jacopo Fazzini pulled out in the warm-up, replaced by Youssef Maleh.
These teams will meet here again in the Coppa Italia quarter-final on February 26.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
Incredibly, it was former Juve defender Mattia De Sciglio who gave Empoli the shock lead after just four minutes, when a Liam Henderson corner was flicked on by Lorenzo Colombo for his free header at the back post, needing to crouch a little to steer it in from six yards. He refused to celebrate and received some applause from the local fans.
Sebastiano Esposito also had far too much room on another corner, his volley cleared almost off the line by Federico Gatti, then Michele Di Gregorio brought down Maleh as he met the Esposito slide-rule pass for a penalty. That decision was revoked following a VAR review for Tino Anjorin’s handling offence in the build-up.
Juventus finally created a chance after 24 minutes, the acrobatic Nico Gonzalez flying volley palmed over the bar by Devis Vasquez, then Tim Weah – as a makeshift right-back – drilling wide on the resulting corner.
Kenan Yildiz rolled across from the left for what was meant to be a Teun Koopmeiners tap-in from seven yards, but it was deflected inches wide off teammate Weston McKennie.
Empoli lost Anjorin and Ardian Ismajli to injury, with substitute Zurkowski curling just wide on the counter-attack within minutes of coming on.
Kolo Muani just failed to connect a diving header to the Federico Gatti ball across the six-yard box, while Vasquez got down quickly to fingertip a long-range Teun Koopmeiners daisy-cutter round the far post.
Juventus finally equalised with Kolo Muani’s second goal in as many appearances for the club. He ran onto a long ball and was physically much stronger than Goglichidze in the challenge, allowing him to beat Vasquez one-on-one.
Moments later, the game had been turned around completely. Kenan Yildiz squirmed away from defenders with a wonderful bit of skill, setting up Weah’s scorcher from distance that hit Kolo Muani to wrong-foot Vasquez from 12 yards.
A Koopmeiners free kick landed on the roof of the net and Di Gregorio was right behind a long-range Henderson strike, but Renato Veiga got a stud on the Colombo effort from the edge of the area, deflecting it inches wide.
Empoli went down to 10 men because after Renato Veiga charged down a Liberato Cacace attempt, Nico Gonzalez went on the counter, scythed down by Maleh for a second yellow card. They continued to push for an equaliser anyway, Weah flinging himself in the path of a ferocious Sebastiano Esposito volley.
In the final minute, Vlahovic added a third when he gathered in midfield and smashed a powerful left-foot finish into the near top corner.
Moments later, Francisco Conceicao made it an unrealistically harsh scoreline on 10-man Empoli, running onto the long Khephren Thuram ball and controlling to fire in low at the near post to give Juventus a 4-1 victory.
Juventus 4-1 Empoli
De Sciglio 4 (E), Kolo Muani 61, 64 (J), Vlahovic 90 (J), Conceicao 92 (J)
Sent off: Maleh 84 (E)
Player statistic
| 4' |  |
Mattia De Sciglio | ||
| 37' |  |
Emmanuel Gyasi | ||
| 41' | |
Youssef Maleh |
| Randal Kolo Muani | |
61' | ||
| Randal Kolo Muani (Assist: Timothy Weah) |
|
64' | ||
| 84' |  |
Youssef Maleh | ||
| Dusan Vlahovic | |
90' | ||
| Francisco Conceição (Assist: Khéphren Thuram) |
|
90+2' |
Match statistic
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