After a forgettable sixth-place finish to the 2025-26 season, the hope was that Juventus, flush with new arrivals in all phases of the field, would begin the ‘26-27 season with a statement against newly-promoted Frosinone.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: had it not been for some poor finishing, the Bianconeri likely would’ve done just that. They could’ve been up by two or three at the half, and failed to pad their lead with another big miss in the early phases of the second half.
Fortunately, the refrain of the last few years — missed opportunities leading to dropped points — didn’t come to pass this time around. The defense bent, and maybe alarmingly so, but a strong performance from Gleison Bremer and a favorable bounce off the crossbar preserved the Brazilian’s 22nd-minute opener.
The 1-0 win was by no means impressive, but for a Juventus team that’s still coming together in Luciano Spalletti’s first season it’s not a sky-is-falling moment either. This is a team that still has to gel a bit as new players integrate and any new ideas from Spalletti take hold. Is improvement imperative? Certainly. But for now, three points against a bottom-of-the-table side will suffice.
Spalletti went with a lineup that was heavy on familiar faces, although three summer arrivals made the 4-2-3-1. Guglielmo Vicario made his Juventus debut in goal, protected by the back four of Pierre Kalulu, Bremer, Lloyd Kelly, and Zeki Celik. Manuel Locatelli and Douglas Luiz started in the double pivot in midfield, while Francisco Conceição, Weston McKennie, and Kenan Yildiz supported the returning Randal Kolo Muani in attack.
Frosinone boss Massimiliano Alvini is an old friend of Spalletti’s, and he led the Canarini to automatic promotion last year with a second-place finish. His starting XI sported six players making their Serie A debuts. Lorenzo Palmisani started in goal behind mirroring 4-2-3-1 formation. Ilario Monterisi, Gabriele Calvini, Giorgio Cittadini, and Gabriele Bracaglia formed the defensive line. Matteo Cichella and Giacomo Calò manned the midfield, with the line of Seydou Fini, Romano Schmid, and Giorgi Kvernadze supporting striker Antonio Raimondo in the attack.
Frosinone got the first shot of the game off in the fourth minute when Monterisi met a floated free kick at the far post but headed it comfortably wide. Juve hit back within minutes. First, Locatelli jumped a defender upfield and sent Kolo Muani into the box, only for the Frenchman to hit the ball weakly at Palmisani. The striker turned provider on a counterattack seconds later, but this time Conceição’s shot was blocked behind.
That began a long stretch of Juventus corner kicks. The Bianconeri earned nine of them in the first half alone, and in the 17th minute Concieção and Luiz exchanged passes off a short corner before the Brazilian sent the ball into the box. Bremer rose between two defenders and delivered a powerful bounding header back across the grain, but pushed it just wide of the post. Two minutes later Bremer flicked another corner kick on to an unmarked Kolo Muani, who didn’t wait for the ball to drop far enough and ballooned it over from four yards out.
Bremer decided not to leave it to anyone else when Juve’s next corner came in the 22nd minute. Conceição and Luiz again ran a short corner routine, this time with the Portuguese lofting a beautiful cross into the box. The big center-back made a beautiful run across the defense to give himself a free header from seven yards out. Palmesani came off his line late, and Bremer thundered his header home to notch the Old Lady’s first goal of the year.
Douglas Luiz made a good impression during his first official game in his new lease on life in Turin, and just after the half hour mark fired a direct free kick just over the bar. With five minutes left before the break the home side, who had so far only managed a pair of wild shots, missed a glorious chance to equalize when Vicario parried a long-range effort from Bracaglia directly into the path of Kvernadze. It looked like a simple finish to tie the score, but the Georgian fired wide of the near post.
Palmesani was tested quickly afterward. Kolo Muani tried to force his way through the right channel, and Cittadini’s effort to stop him left the ball in the path of Kalulu. He took a single touch and then hit a drive across goal that Palmesani to the barest of a fingertip to, redirecting the ball onto the goalpost. Yildiz was right behind the rebound, but his first-time shot went right at Palmesani, making what was still a fantastic double save a little bit easier to parry behind. With seconds left in stoppage time Kolo Muani was led nicely into the box but was denied by an impressive challenge just before he was ready to pull the trigger on his shot.
The Bianconeri knew they ought to have been two or three goals to the good as they went into the break, and Conceição made attempts to rectify that early, cutting inside but putting his shot right at Palmesani. Five minutes into the second period Kolo Muani made a nice play to send Celik through, and the Turkish fullback used the outside of his right foot to put the ball perfectly into the path of the diminutive winger, but this time Conceição was the one who missed a sitter, blasting the ball into the stands from 11 yards out.
Immediately after the miss Fini tried to surprise Vicario with a near-post shot, but this time the new signing punched the ball clear. Juve began to visibly lose energy at this point. Curiously, Spalletti didn’t respond from his bench, even after Alvini made four changes in the span of eight minutes starting just before the hour mark. Conceição had another attempt in the 66th minute, a powerful shot that flew a whisker wide, but the old familiar feeling that Juventus was letting an inferior team hang around far too long had already crept into the minds of Juventini.
Spalletti finally went to his bench with just over 20 minutes to go, replacing both of his wingers plus Celik, who was playing under caution after a somewhat harsh yellow card, and introducing Edon Zhegrova, Jérémie Boga, and Andrea Cambiaso. Teun Koopmeiners came on for Luiz 10 minutes later and only a few minutes later put in a nice-looking ball across the face of goal that ended up having a little too much mustard on it for Kolo Muani to be able to stab it home.
The match remained on a knife’s edge as the clock ticked into stoppage time, at which point the fact that Spalletti still hadn’t used his last substitution ended up being serendipitous after Vicario began cramping up, forcing Mattia Perin to come on for the game’s final moments.
The home side had a minimum of six minutes of stoppage time to try to find an equalizer, and halfway through that time they very nearly got it when Calvini got above a pair of ball-watching defenders to get his head to the ball, only to clang it off the angle of the woodwork. Bremer reacted to the rebound and chested it into the air for Perin to smother, allowing Juve fans to breathe again. Frosinone weren’t able to get anything else toward goal except a wild shot from Aleksa Terzic, and when referee Giovanni Ayroldi finally blew his whistle after eight added minutes — the last two tacked on due to Vicario’s treatment — to end the game, the unwelcome early stress test was over, and the first three points of the year had been secured.
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