The drawing series is over. The talk of nothing but a draw is over.

Everything – over.

That’s because when they desperately needed an opening win to turn the tide despite a run of nothing but draws, Juventus put in one hell of a performance. And against a team that has all the hardware (and money) in the world and is based in England, Juventus and its first-year coach have shown they can do it on the big stage when they need to.

Sure, Manchester City isn’t currently the same Manchester City that resembles the four-time Premier League winners of the last half decade, but Wednesday night’s 2-0 win over the English giants showed us what things can look like when Thiago Motta lays out a plan, his team executes it almost perfectly, and everything goes just as well as you hoped. Juventus beat City on the break, paid for it with second-half goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie within 12 minutes and secured three oh-so-valuable points in the new league phase of the Champions League.

The win, Juventus’ first in all competitions since November 9, saw Motta’s side move up eight places in the league table from 22nd to 14th, just behind Atalanta and just two points off the automatic qualification places, with two games still remaining in the league phase.

It also extended City’s winning streak to just one win in their last 10 games in all competitions and prevented any talk of Pep Guardiola potentially turning the tide with a positive result and performance against Juventus.

Instead, Juventus took the win here.

And it was definitely a good win, no matter what condition Manchester City is in.

Juventus fought. They showed about as much heart as we’ve seen from them this season – especially when it came to how they defended. They worked together. They limited the same game-winning mistakes we had seen throughout their draw series. As City pressed more and more for a goal both before and after Vlahovic’s opener, which went just over the line, Juventus defended like a bunch of stubborn madmen who knew such an important victory was at hand.

And most importantly, they took the best scoring opportunities available against a Manchester City side that proved vulnerable to counterattacks.

It was a performance Juventus have only seen a handful of times under Motta so far this season. We saw them win hard in the Champions League in Leipzig. We also saw them win comfortably against PSV Eindhoven in the start of the UCL league phase in September. But to do that against Manchester City – yes, City are undermanned, but they’re still a team with elite talent all over the place – is hard to scoff at.

Juventus needed a night like this and they got it. Time will tell if this will be the turning point for Motta and his team, but it has been a while since Juventus had a truly big win in the Champions League in front of their home crowd.

You definitely deserve it. Juventus and Motta have just secured a crucial win and it’s damn good to see it after so many damn draws in the last few months.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• “Tonight was a great birthday present from the stadium,” a beaming Alessandro Del Piero, wearing another sharp dark gray suit with tan pinstripes, said on the CBS post-game show. I don’t know about you, but if Del Piero is happy with Juventus, I am too. (Even though his birthday was actually a month ago. It’s not “Christmas in November” for nothing.)
• December 8, 2020: Weston McKennie scores a scissor kick against Barcelona in the Champions League.
• December 11, 2024: Weston McKennie scores a scissor kick against Manchester City in the Champions League.
• Wednesday night’s goal had a little more USMNT flavor considering who recorded the assist. We thank Timothy Weah for continuing after his first cross/shot was blocked. It’s nice to see McKennie rewarded for such a great pass past the goal and into the box, as my husband howled for the ball just before the cross.
• Also a big part of the goal: Danilo. For both the huge tackle and the outlet pass to McKennie.
• I also hope Wes has a bit of fun with his goal, considering Federico Gatti almost shot the same way, from practically the same spot in City’s penalty area, but actually saw his shot saved. (It actually led to Juve’s first goal, so it wasn’t a total defeat.)
• Manchester City possession over 18 minutes: 72%.
• Manchester City possession over 30 minutes: 67%.
• Manchester City possession in the first half: 65%.
• Manchester City possession at the final whistle: 69%.
• However, Juventus won. That is nice.
• With all the ball possession in the first half, the total number of shots taken by both teams was even 3-3.
• Within the first 20 minutes of the second half, both Juventus and City had fired six shots each. So that’s a sign that things were a little more open.
• Despite only having 31% possession, Juventus ended up scoring almost as many shots as City and had a 5-3 advantage in shots on goal. How about this?!
• Boy oh boy, Michele Di Gregorio’s first save of the night was good. Erling Haaland had to think he had one, but Di Gregorio’s left hand left him completely stoned.
• His second save was also damn good.
• In the 90 minutes, Haaland had a total of 18 ball contacts and only one shot attempt. Juventus’ defense held on to arguably the best number 9 in the game.
• Despite all the ball possession, Vlahovic still finished with more ball contacts than Haaland. Ha, ha, ha.
• Ederson’s attempt on a volley from Gatti and Vlahovic’s goal… yikes!
• Oh man, if Kenan Yildiz had hit that shot at the back post in the 20th minute, we wouldn’t have been able to hear the commentators’ reaction with so much noise in the stadium. What an opportunity that was.
• Manchester City passes completed: 698
• Passes completed by Juventus: 310
• As someone might want to do, just shout “ADVERT!” right now.
• Manuel Locatelli was not good at the weekend and he was largely responsible for both goals scored by Bologna in a 2-2 draw. There was no repeat of this kind against Manchester City. Locatelli was absolutely huge. The guy was everywhere, making tackles, blocking shots and distributing the ball. It was just a great night for No. 5.
• Locatelli had 12 saves. No one else in the game had more than seven.
• I know I’ve already mentioned Danilo, but his performance deserves further mention because I was very worried about how he would perform at left-back. Well, he did quite well and held his own in the first half when City certainly attacked down the right wing most of the time.
• Nicolo Savona can stay. Another solid Champions League performance from a boy who played in Serie C last season.
• On a few occasions, Francisco Conceição was essentially used by Manchester City’s entire left-wing team in a three-man team. You know, just in case when you think about how dangerous our new favorite Portuguese winger is, you’re wondering how dangerous the opposing teams are now.
• It’s nice to win again. So, so beautiful.
• Seeing Gatti celebrate every single free throw and every blocked shot was truly a throwback to better times for Juventus. The same applies to the win against Manchester City in the Champions League. Let us remember and enjoy this victory, my friends.