Juventus 5-0 NEC Nijmegen: Woltemade's first goal, an assist for debutant Grabara, and top spot in the Europa League

Juventus beat NEC Nijmegen 5-0 on the opening matchday of the Europa League, and after ninety minutes they top the single table of thirty-six. Four days earlier they had lost 3-2 at Sassuolo to a goal in the 94th minute, and the week had started with Spalletti's job being questioned.

The five goals

Nicolás González opened the scoring on 9 minutes, with the assist credited to Grabara, the goalkeeper, on his debut for the club. On 24 minutes Alajbegović made it two, set up by McKennie. On 35 González won a penalty, brought down by Kabar, and Woltemade converted it: his first goal for Juventus.

After the break Çelik scored on 75 minutes from a Kolo Muani assist, four minutes after the Frenchman came on, and Kolo Muani finished it on 82, set up by Lucumí. Seven minutes between his assist and his goal.

Alajbegović, 18 years and 361 days, is the second eighteen-year-old to score for Juventus in a major European competition: the only one before him was Gianfranco Zigoni, on 2 October 1963 against OFK Belgrade.

How wide the gap was

Shots finished eleven each, but shots on target were seven to three and big chances five to none, four of them taken. Expected goals read 4.14 against 0.76. NEC made more passes (548 to 498) and more entries into the final third, without creating a single real chance.

The crowd was 41,407, including 2,099 Dutch fans. Derevinskyi of Ukraine refereed; Douglas Luiz and Monteiro were booked, nobody was sent off.

The choices that had been questioned

Juventus started with Grabara; Kalulu, Gatti, Lucumí, Çelik; Douglas Luiz, Sarr; Nicolás González, McKennie, Alajbegović; Woltemade. Spalletti had announced McKennie would start and had picked Grabara ahead of Vicario: both worked.

Bremer, Conceição and Koopmeiners came on between the 60th and 61st minutes, Kolo Muani on 71 and Owusu on 83. Afterwards Spalletti praised his goalkeeper for his calm and his work with the ball at his feet, and said “McKennie is everything because he can do everything in football” and that Sarr “is a thoroughbred, because he has the quality of running”.

Nicolás González, on the club's website: “We needed this win and we needed to play good football. We have trained hard and tonight we played a great game and took home three important points.”

One detail worth stating plainly: Grabara, Sarr and Woltemade are all on loan, from Wolfsburg, Tottenham and Newcastle. Grabara was first choice at Wolfsburg, with 63 Bundesliga appearances.

NEC were short

The Dutch side were without suspended first-choice goalkeeper Crettaz, so Polster played. They lost Bischoff to injury inside the first half and rebuilt their defence at the interval, taking off Kabar, who had conceded the penalty. It is the club's heaviest defeat in a single European game.

Our call

On Juventus against NEC Nijmegen our call was over 1.5 goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.

Atalanta next

Sarri's Atalanta visit the Allianz Stadium on Sunday at 18:00 Italian time: Juventus have seven points, Atalanta six, and both come off a league defeat. It is the last game before the international break.

The number that weighs: over the last ten years the league meetings between the two have produced twelve draws out of nineteen, and Atalanta are unbeaten in their last eight trips to Turin. Juventus' last home league win over Atalanta was on 14 March 2018.

On Juventus against Atalanta our call is under 4.5 goals, confidence 7 out of 10. The Europa League resumes on 15 October, away to Celta Vigo.

Every game with our calls is on the Europa League page and on the Serie A page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and the individual ones are in player predictions.