Five-goal Juventus response eases Spalletti pressure

Juventus defeated NEC Nijmegen 5-0 at the Allianz Stadium on Thursday to open their Europa League 2026/27 league-phase campaign, delivering an emphatic response to the 3-2 defeat to Sassuolo that had preceded it.

Five different scorers found the net, with three of those goals marking first strikes for the club, according to Football Italia.

Gonzalez, Alajbegovic and Woltemade set the tone before the break

The breakthrough came inside nine minutes when Kamil Grabara, making his Juventus debut, launched a long ball forward that stand-in NEC goalkeeper Nikolas Polster badly misjudged. Nico Gonzalez simply rounded him and rolled into an empty net, handing the Pole an assist on his first appearance.

Kerim Alajbegovic doubled the lead on 24 minutes, drilling into the top corner after Weston McKennie carried the ball forward and squared to the edge of the box – his first goal since arriving in the summer. Ten minutes later, Almugera Kabar brought down Gonzalez inside the area, and Nick Woltemade sent Polster the wrong way from the spot for his first goal in Bianconeri colours.

Randal Kolo Muani, introduced from the bench, needed four minutes to make his mark, beating Tobias Storm before cutting back for Zeki Celik to tap in a fourth. The Frenchman then got one himself on 82 minutes, released by Jhon Lucumi in near-identical fashion to Gonzalez’s opener, punishing another Polster misjudgement.

NEC improve after the break but never threaten

NEC were more competitive than the scoreline suggests, out-shooting Juventus seven to five by half-time and enjoying 67 per cent possession during the opening quarter-hour after the restart. Ayodele Thomas twice tested Grabara and beat Federico Gatti to deliver crosses from the left, while Dennis Geiger dragged an effort narrowly over, but Grabara was never seriously troubled and the Juventus defence gave nothing away.

Luciano Spalletti’s position had been openly debated before kick-off, with sporting director Frederic Massara publicly backing him hours earlier. A result of this scale, opening the Europa League league-phase campaign with a five-goal statement, buys the manager some breathing space, even if it settles nothing beyond the immediate aftermath of the Sassuolo setback.

Attention now turns to how Spalletti manages his squad depth across two competitions, an issue already shadowed by recent Europa League squad omissions.