24 December 2024
22 December 2024 will remain in Juventus' history because, with the 2-1 victory in Monza, the Bianconeri reached an impressive milestone of 1700 victories in Serie A, the most of any team in Italy.
A historic milestone for Italian and European football, which came thanks to goals from Weston McKennie and Nico Gonzalez in the match against the Lombardy side on matchday 17 of the 2024/2025 Italian championship.
There were several plays that stood out in the match: from Francisco Conceicao's usual dribbles, to McKennie's opener, Nico Gonzalez's astuteness and Michele Di Gregorio's super saves.
There was one, however, that went under the radar in terms of the importance of both the play itself and the moment in which it took place.
The match was a rollercoaster of emotions, with McKennie's goal giving the Bianconeri the upper hand after a quarter of an hour of play before Samuele Birindelli's equaliser midway through the half restored parity. On 39 minutes Nico Gonzalez gave Juventus the advantage once more, but just three minutes later, the hosts had a second goal all but secured, had it not been for the heroics of our number 8, Teun Koopmeiners.
THE PLAY
Two shots, first from Gianluca Caprari and then Dany Mota, were both blocked by Koop (who had already been decisive earlier in the match with the assist for McKennie's goal), in quick succession, in the space of a few fractions of a second. Koop was perfect in his timing and his athleticism, reading the game and the dangerous situation. Putting his body on the line, his first block rebounded and ended up at the feet of Mota, positioned just a few metres from the goal defended by Di Gregorio: the ex-Juventus U-23 player's shot came from very close range and was destined for goal, but Koop once again got in the way, preserving his side's lead and playing a massive role in securing the eventual three points.
