Juventus 1-0 Atletico Madrid: 3 Reasons Why the Bianconeri won

#1 Matthijs de Ligt leads a dogged defensive display

Matthijs de Ligt

Over the summer, not many transfer sagas dominated the back pages as much as the one revolving around Dutch starlet Matthijs de Ligt. Eventually though, Juventus won the race for his signature, thereby teasing an enticing prospect of the Dutchman featuring in the company of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci.

However, an untimely injury to the 35-year-old meant that the former Ajax skipper was thrown straight into the deep end, a prospect he certainly didn’t enjoy in the formative stages of his Juventus career.

The youngster endured an enormous amount of criticism with many even questioning his hefty transfer fee. However, recently, he has started racking up brilliant displays and that trajectory perhaps reached a crescendo against Atletico on Tuesday.

The Dutchman represented the most ubiquitous figure on the pitch as he was present to mop up the danger throughout the game. His game-reading was exemplary too as he rarely allowed an Atletico forward to get goal-side of him.

Most encouragingly though, his decision-making was exemplary, especially considering that facet of his game has been under the scanner recently.

On numerous occasions, he dived into challenges whereas he was also smart enough to not lunge in at other times. His exceptional performance was capped off by one moment in the final quarter of the second half.

After Joao Felix had played Correa through on goal, courtesy a delicious outside of the boot pass, de Ligt quickly sized up his man and produced an impeccably timed tackle, thereby clearing the danger and disallowing the Argentine from having a shot on goal.

Over the years, a lot of promising youngsters have wilted under the weight of astronomical expectations and for a while, it seemed that that particular aspect had been getting the better of the Dutchman as well.

Yet, with such an assured showing against one of Europe’s premier teams, de Ligt has only strengthened a reputation that had taken hits in the past few months. And, if he keeps churning out such displays, one reckons not many would be arguing over his transfer fee.