Juventus' emphatic win over NEC Nijmegen gives the Bianconeri a breath of fresh air and helps ease the after-effects of the sensational defeat to Sassuolo. The 5-0 win over the Dutch side, with goals from Nico Gonzalez, remarkably from a Grabara assist, Alajbegovic, Woltemade, Celik and Kolo Muani, must naturally be taken with a pinch of salt. NEC's cavalier approach, and the not especially high technical level of Dick Schreuder's side, tell Luciano Spalletti and Juventus to keep their feet on the ground, while still taking the positives from the attitude shown across the full 90 minutes and, above all, the route to goal found by Alajbegovic, Woltemade and, especially, Kolo Muani.
Beyond the necessary caveats about the real weight of the win on their Europa League debut, the element that struck us most in last night's match at the Allianz Stadium was Kerim Alajbegović's performance. The 18-year-old Bosnian, who will turn 19 in three days, produced a high-level display, with a goal and several moments that drew applause from the Juventus crowd. Commentators noticed too, including Alessandro Costacurta on Sky: "Alajbegovic is becoming very good and I want to highlight him: because since I hear people undervaluing this lad, I instead say that he will have a great future". Alajbegovic's performance matters because it was not an isolated one, but came after other good matches: against Sassuolo he was one of the few Juventus players to deserve a pass mark, and he had also done well against AC Milan and Parma, after the 90 minutes on the bench on his debut against Frosinone.
