Juventus demolished NEC Nijmegen 5-0 in their Europa League opener — goals from Nico González, Alajbegovic, Woltemade, Çelik, and Kolo Muani — and Luciano Spalletti could barely contain his satisfaction as he addressed Sky Sport after the final whistle. The score alone is the news. But what surrounds it — five different scorers, all of them new arrivals from this summer, and the debut of a 3-back formation that addressed every weakness exposed by the Sassuolo defeat — makes Thursday’s result considerably more significant than any mere Europa League matchday one fixture.
“Absolutely Delighted — They Transformed the Doubts That Come After a Defeat Like That”
“It is correct what you have said — I am absolutely delighted. Precisely because they entered the pitch with a clarity of ideas. They transformed the doubts that come after defeats of that kind, the choices to make. They chose well. The goals were also beautiful ones. They managed to exploit NEC’s own aggression and enthusiasm — because when opponents come at you that hard, the answer is not to be intimidated but to use what they are doing. And they used it well. On the first goal, they called NEC to press with a short, low circulation and then went long into the space. Nico González was excellent at hooking onto a ball that could have seemed a little long.”
“A Formation the Squad Can Interpret — We Needed More Compactness and More Block”
On the tactical shift to a back three — the formation that addressed the balance problems so painfully exposed at Sassuolo — Spalletti was clear about both the motivation and the future application. “What we showed… we needed more compactness, more force, more block as a team — and naturally to leave space behind the defensive line. From the way it went, the idea and the choice to change something was correct. This is a formation that the squad can go and interpret — a formation that last season won us several matches. I do not want to talk about injuries — we have so few players now that we must adapt. Because we could not field the right players on the flanks.”
