Juventus 1 (3) PSV Eindhoven 3 (4): Initial reaction and random ...

On Wednesday night, Juventus got what they deserved.

Despite a 2-1 advantage on aggregate. Despite another long-distance belter from one of their Americans to put them ahead on aggregate. Despite actually heading to the Netherlands with their first notable winning streak of the season. Despite all of that, Juve got what they deserved at the Philips Stadion.

And that was to get bounced from the Champions League.

Juventus’ performance against PSV Eindhoven was very much a continuation of how the first leg in Turin went eight days ago. But the difference this time is that there was no late heroics to find some sort of escape. Instead, PSV — who entered the decisive second leg with just one win in their last five — was able to flip the aggregate scoreline in their favor and oust Juventus from the Champions League with a 3-1 on the night and 4-3 over the two legs. The one thing that Juve couldn’t afford to do — you know, actually lose Wednesday night — was what ended up playing out and now it’s another hit to a season in which qualifying for the UCL Round of 16 was one of the biggest goals the club had.

Instead, they’re out one step short of that.

And instead of being the ones celebrating a spot in the final 16 and waiting to see who they’ll get in Friday’s draw, they were watching PSV players, coaching staff members and much of the 35,000-plus in attendance going nuts.

It was an appropriate kind of ending for what simply turned out to be an awful night in the Netherlands.

PSV were better on this night. There is no question about that. They dominated much of the second half and extra time before setting up shop and daring Juventus to try and score on them. As much as Juve had their chances in extra time — and they did whether it was Dusan Vlahovic (nice to see you again!) or Khephren Thuram — the only reason why the scoreline wasn’t more in PSV’s favor was thanks to a couple of brilliant saves from Michele Di Gregorio. But, by then, PSV was fully in control and Juve were essentially just hanging on for dear life.

But then the ball pinged off Federico Gatti’s foot as he attempted to apparently control the ball right in front of Di Gregorio when he should have instead tried to simply just clear it if at all possible. The result? PSV taking the lead once and for all — something that was about as deserved as anything to happen on this night.

Juventus’ defense faltered either thanks to individual errors or just being torn apart by PSV on the counter. The squad’s overall inexperience showed. Their manager’s inexperience on the sideline in these types of situations showed. Thiago Motta way too long to make the triple sub that brought on a whole new double pivot even though one of those “midfielders” was actually Andrea Cambiaso, who came on just 10 minutes in after Renato Veiga was forced off injured.

Maybe we should have taken it as some sort of omen when Veiga got hurt that this night would turn from bad news to even worse. There certainly wasn’t the late comeback from Juventus like the last time a Juve center back had to leave a European fixture away from home early due to injury.

But all I keep coming back to as the minutes tick away after the final whistle sounded is that Juventus deserved what they got against PSV. They deserve to be out. That’s obviously no sort of major insight, but it’s the truth. This was a Juve team that was second best against a PSV team that has not been playing well at all over the last month. And yet, even with the advantage on aggregate coming into the night, Juventus saw their European run come to an end because how poorly they played for much of the 120-plus minutes Wednesday night.

This Champions League campaign began with quite the high-energy return to Europe with a win over this same PSV side. Five months later, it all came to an end in Eindhoven — a result, a performance and overall UCL showing that will leave a whole lot to be desired no matter how you look at it as time goes on.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• It’s all just so stupid. But, at the same time, it’s also rather predictable based on how this season has gone. Can’t consistently hold a lead in games. Can’t hold one on aggregate, either. It’s all just so silly.
• By “silly” I think I mean it’s incredibly frustrating and leaves you just wanting to do nothing but shake your head.
• Juventus didn’t even need to win. Seeing the 1,500th draw of the 2024-25 season would have been just fine no matter how they got there. But nope, that wasn’t possible.
• Prayer circle for Renato Veiga and whatever kind of muscle injury that forced him off after 10 minutes. Who knows if it’s a calf strain or something else, but I’m guessing just how pissed off he looked as he walked down into the tunnel was how a lot of us felt watching from afar. Just another injury to add to the lengthy list of injuries at the back.
• I’m so tired of seeing Juventus defenders get injured. You are, too, I’m sure. But it just never seems to stop — and that’s part of the problem that nobody seems able to solve.
• Motta said that Teun Koopmeiners was playing with a fever — which makes sense considering that the Dutchman’s return to his home country was rather tame.
• I would also like it if Koopmeiners also got some sort of break health-wise to go his way because this feels like the third or fourth time that he’s dealt with some sort of illness ever since he signed with Juventus.
• I gotta admit that it is a little amusing that a guy with the last name of “Flamingo” was arguably the best player on the field Wednesday night. It’s just a little funny because big defenders aren’t also ones who usually possess the last name of a very delicately built wading bird.
• Then again, big defenders also don’t usually have a last name that translates as “Cats” into English. So there’s also that.
• Speaking of Fred Cats, once Veiga went out injured you just figured that Juve would need a super-human type of performance from him. Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried and how many defensive actions he was involved in, that just didn’t happen. It didn’t lack for effort, but it definitely lacked in execution.
• Still not convinced by Lloyd Kelly. He did some good things once he kicked into the center of Juve’s defense for Veiga, but there’s still a whole lot to be desired for a player who is probably going to be playing a lot the next couple of weeks. (And subsequently seeing that obligation to buy kick in for much more than he’s probably worth.)
• That being said, Gatti and Kelly combined for 25 clearances. That’s a lot.
• What’s not so funny as compared to a defender named Flamingo is the highest-paid player in Serie A now very much relegated to a substitute role and realizing he’s only scored one goal — a very good goal at that! — in the last two months.
• Randal Kolo Muani only had eight touches in the first half, yet within those touches were a couple of very good scoring chances. Funny how this game goes sometimes, ain’t it?
• Who led Juventus with four tackles in the first half? Of course it was Francisco Conceição, known defensive workhorse out on the wings.
• Honestly surprised that the xG on Manuel Locatelli’s shot from just outside the midfield circle was at 0.06. Was really hoping it would be 0.01 because that’s the ultimate hope and a prayer.
• I still don’t know why Motta waited so long to make his change in midfield. Even with Timothy Weah scoring when he did, it’s not like Juve were playing well before that. Just make the change right then and there after the goal. Try and lock things up and not even risk PSV ramping things back up against a tiring defense and midfield.
• Instead, that big swing came right after PSV tied things up on aggregate. Frustrating.
• I really don’t know how Nicolo Savona didn’t see red for that tackle attempt. It was bad.
• I get that Motta doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of options right now in defense even before having to scramble with Veiga getting hurt, but the recent Savona struggles definitely have not helped things out at all.
• Cambiaso as a holding midfielder definitely was a risk that didn’t totally play out well.
• There was a point midway through the first half in which I lost count of how many times Weston McKennie tried a flick on with his head either on a thrown-in or a long ball from a teammate and there wasn’t anybody there to be on the receiving end of it. I don’t get it.
• Enough with Ivan Perisic, dammit. Just enough of him.
• PSV xG in the second half: 1.55.
• Juventus xG in the entire game: 1.67.
• I don’t know about you guys, but that seems less than ideal.
• Sure did turn out to be a pretty bad 26-hour period of European football for Serie A. WOOF.
• Somebody pass the bourbon. We’re going to need a good amount of it right now — and not in the same kind of way as over the weekend where we could sit back with each sip and enjoy Juventus doing something very good.