In a blockbuster encounter on Sunday, Juventus came out on top against Inter thanks to a Conceição winner in the 74th minute. Inter entered the match as favorites, with Juve having played PSV in the Champions League midweek and Inter being touted as favorites for the Serie A title.

The first half went as many expected with Inter dominating possession and attacking chances. Inter suffocated Juventus with their press, with Juventus barely being able to pass the half way line. Juventus didn’t play with much intensity and their players were very static. Gonzalez and Conceição spread the field by playing close to the touchline, and McKennie and Koopmeiners played deep with Thuram. This isolated Kolo Muani up front against the three Inter center-backs. For Inter, with Thuram out, Inter needed to find another outlet to play through. They identified Dumfries’ superior athletic ability compared to Savona, where he caused the young Juventus defender many problems. Dumfries created many chances in the first half, however, Taremi and notably Martinez missed many goal scoring opportunities, which came to hurt them later in the match.

In the second half, it was a whole different story, with Inter seemingly bereft of inspiration and Juventus coming out with much more intensity. Juventus seemed to be playing with more freedom, as the midfield and attacking lines tended to interchange often, with McKennie often finding himself outwide and Conceição cutting inside. However, the most notable change after the interval, was McKennie and Koopmeiners playing much higher than in the first half. With this tactical change, the Inter center backs were pinned back, as Juve had a 3v3 against the Inter backline, which forced Dumfries and Dimarco to drop back to mark Gonzalez and Conceição. In the first half, Dumfries and Dimarco pressed high against the Juventus wing backs and the Inter center backs spread wide and man marked the Juventus wingers. But now with this tactical change, the Juventus wing backs had much more space and time on the ball, as both Inter wing backs had to defend deeper. This meant that the Inter midfielders had to press outwide, and leave their marker in the midfielder, which always left a Juventus midfielder open.

However, the most important tactical switch from Motta was the substitution of Cambiasso. With the Juventus wing backs having so much space, Motta smartly decided to sub on a more attacking minded wing back for a defensive minded one. Cambiasso, known for his qualities on the ball, controlled the game the second he entered the pitch. He tended to invert into the midfield, which created an overload in the midfield area. Inter’s midfield which were already struggling following Juventus’ tactical tweaks, now faced another problem. Allegri didn’t really find an answer to Motta’s tactical switch. He made a few subs to bring more energy onto the field, however this didn’t really work. In the end, with Juventus continuing to pin Inter back into their own box, Cambiasso found himself with time and space and whipped a ball into the box which landed to Kolo Muani’s feet, and with a little luck and a classy skill move from the Frenchman landed to Conceição’s feet, with space in the box and he finished with a low driven shot to the bottom left corner of Inter’s goal.

Although this game didn’t bring the same vibrance as the previous encounter in October, the tactical battle between the two was a marvel to watch. In the end it was a great result for Juventus and announces the new era at the Allianz Stadium. However, for Inter this was 3 important points lost in the title race which could cost them dearly at the end of the season.