Juventus 2023-24 Season Review: Top 15 goals countdown

I know, I know. I usually get this piece in much earlier in the offseason than this.

Unfortunately, looking through clips of every single Juventus goal and whittling it all down to a top-15 countdown takes time — and anyone who has been blessed with parenthood knows that when a two-and-a-half-year-old is present, time is not something you have a whole lot of. But I finally managed to find some time after my son went to bed in which I did not immediately become a snoring lump on the couch and got through it.

Granted, there was a lot less to sift through than there’s been in years past. That mostly had to do with Juve’s lack of European competition, which cut down on the number of games in which they could score goals to begin with. Coupled with Massimiliano Allegri’s general aversion to attacking opponents regardless of their quality levels — and the utter second half collapse that saw Juve score only 18 goals in their final 17 league matches — the number of goals scored was certainly depressed.

Indeed, Juve somehow contrived to score two fewer goals than they did last year in Serie A even without the burden of Europe. A scoring binge in their first two rounds of Coppa Italia play drove up the count a little bit, but Juve’s attacking numbers were still relatively anemic. Not counting three own goals, they scored 65 times, 54 in the league and 14 in the Coppa.

Fortunately for us, some of them were absolute bangers. As usual, it’s not necessarily all about the finishing with this list. A special assist or general buildup play can get a simple tap-in onto the list as easily as a fantastic strike from range. Sometimes, as we’ll see in a few paragraphs, it’s simply a goal that provides us with a Moment.

So, what were the 15 best goals of the 2023-24 season? Let’s take a look back and find out.

15 - Alex Sandro, Serie A Rd. 38, vs Monza

We start with a goal that, while relatively simple on the surface, was packed with meaning.

Alex Sandro has been one of the most constant and loyal players Juventus has ever had. He played at the Allianz for nine years. In the last few years he’s been the target of quite a bit of vitriol as his decline phase escalated, not helped by the enormous highs he reached in his early years with the team.

Sandro went out for one last run in black and white on the season’s last day, equaling Pavel Nedved’s record for most appearances by a foreign player in doing so. With Juve already leading in the 28th minute, he lined up at the near post on a corner and met Nicolo Fagioli’s delivery with a snap header that was in the back of the net before goalkeeper Alessandro Sorrentino could move.

While this is on the list for the you-couldn’t-write-it-better of it all, it also wasn’t the easiest of shots. Fagioli’s delivery was coming in hot and when Sandro met it he was outside of the post, which is a tricky redirect. It was an excellent header to cap an excellent Juventus career for the stalwart Brazilian.

14 - Federico Chiesa, Serie A Rd. 1, at Udinese

Man, how bright everything looked nine months ago.

For the first few weeks to start the year, it looked like Max might actually have come out of his shell. Juventus jumped all over Udinese in the season opener, and it took all of 108 seconds to score their first goal of the season after Dusan Vlahovic pounced on an egregious back pass and pushed it forward to Chiesa. The Italy international took one touch and unleashed a powerful effort from the top of the penalty arc, nutmegging Jaka Bijol on the way through while Marco Silvestri stayed rooted to the spot..

It was the first salvo in a torrid start that saw Juve up 3-0 by halftime, and saw Juventini seeing tantalizing heights. It’s a shame the team wasn’t allowed to stay there.

13 - Andrea Cambiaso, Serie A Rd. 28 vs. Atalanta

This goal is all about the buildup, starting when Chiesa dropped back to regain the ball in midfield. This started a meticulous move up the left side of the field involving Manuel Locatelli, Chiesa, and Weston McKennie, while Cambiaso made a long diagonal run into the space left by the gravitational pull of the ball. He continued his run as Chiesa and McKennie played a final one-two before the American slipped the ball into open space in the channel for Cambiaso to run onto and stab it past Marco Carnesecchi to tie the score at 1-1.

Juve would take the lead minutes later, but eventually had to settle for a draw after Teun Koopmeiners finished off a brace later in the game.

12 - Federico Chiesa, Coppa Italia semifinal, first leg, vs. Lazio

Juventus were in the depths of their second-half collapse when they met Lazio for the first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal. Just days before, they had extended it by falling to the Biancocelesti at the Stadio Olimpico on a goal in the last minute of stoppage time. With the Coppa now clearly their only shot at silverware on the season, they needed to reverse the trend.

After a choppy first half Juve broke out of the gates hot in the second half. Cambiaso showed off his impressive vision and range of passing when drove upfield out of the back and spotted huge gap in the defense in front of Chiesa. He unleashed a through ball from deep in his own half. Chiesa let the ball run deep into Lazio’s half before he took a single touch and rifled the ball past Christos Mandas to give Juve the lead. They would ultimately win 2-0 and advance to the final a few weeks later 3-2 on aggregate.

11 - Federico Chiesa, Serie A Rd. 27, at Napoli

This one kinda came out of nowhere.

Chiesa exchanging passes with Carlos Alcaraz above the box initially looked so unthreatening that it didn’t even really register as any kind of attempt at a give-and-go. But there was Freddy Church, taking a few leisurely steps into the box before unleashing a worm-burner from out of the blue that angled past a few defenders and past Alex Meret. The keeper was cheating toward his near post on the play, possibly expecting any ball coming his way as a feed for Vlahovic, who was making a run up the middle.

In all honesty, he may have been trying to hit Vlahovic with a pass, but instead he nestled it just inside the post, giving Juve a short-lived equalizer before a penalty conceded by midfielder Joseph Nonge gave Napoli the 2-1 victory.

10 - Kenan Yildiz, Coppa Italia Round of 16, vs. Salernitana

Kenan Yildiz’s breakout was one of the few things about he 2024 calendar year that can be chalked up as a positive. After Allegri waited, as usual, until his hand was forced by injuries to give the teenage sensation a significant amount of minutes, he quickly laid claim to a larger place in the team.

Juve’s largest win of the year saw them fall behind within 60 seconds of kickoff. But once that mistake had been cleared up, Juve went bonkers, starting the 2024 calendar year with a bang. Yildiz was responsible for two of the six Juve scored. He’d made it 4-1 when he forced an own goal after his shot was parried right into a defender. Then he pulled out this beautiful solo goal, dribbling his way through two defenders and around another before slamming home at the near post.

9 - Dusan Vlahovic, Serie A Rd. 4, vs. Lazio

The team’s leading scorer finally makes an appearance.

(Don’t worry, there will be others)

One of Juve’s best games of the year, the 3-1 home win against Lazio in September was, it would turn out, one of the season’s high points. Vlahovic scored two of Juve’s three goals, and the last one, which sealed the game after a mistake in the back had let Lazio back into the game, was one of the first instances to display Wes McKennie as the creative outlet he became this year.

In this case, his long diagonal switch was tandem down by Vlahovic with an ease that belied just how difficult a move it actually was, before the Serbia international punished a 19-yard shot across Ivan Provodel and into the goal to seal the three points.

8 - Dusan Vlahovic, Serie A Rd. 2, vs. Bologna

Juve’s home opener ended up being an early indication of how good Bologna would end up being under Thiago Motta this year. Lewis Ferguson had put Bologna a head in the 24th minute, and Juve had struggled to mount much in the way of a pursuit of an equalizer.

That is, until the 80th minute, when Paul Pogba (remember when he actually played?) sent Samuel Iling-Junior down the left side. The young Englishmans’ cross found Vlahovic right at the penalty spot—a range from which scoring a headed goal is very difficult due to the amount of power you have to generate.

Vlahovic, however, connected with this one absolutely perfectly, hitting it strongly enough and into the exact right spot to bounce past Lukasz Skorupski to tie the score and eventually give Juve a 1-1 draw.

7 - Daniele Rugani, Serie A Rd. 26, vs. Frosinone

Juventus won or drew their fair share of games very late this year.

Unfortunately, they often needed to to it against teams they had no business needing it for. Frosinone, who the team had spanked 4-0 in the Coppa Italia six weeks before, was one such team. They took the lead, then fell behind, then equalized at 2-2—all within the first half.

The next 45 minutes were frustrating, but Fino alla Fine means what it says, and as stoppage time came to an end Juve had one last corner kick to find a winner.

Safe to say, the dude who found it was not the one we expected.

Vlahovic flicked the delivery toward the back post, where Daniele Rugani of all people met it with a striker’s finish, nutmegging Michele Cerofolini from an extreme angle to give his team three much-needed points.

6 - Dusan Vlahovic, Serie A Rd. 4, vs. Lazio

The other end of Vlahovic’s brace against Lazio also belongs on this list, for both the finish and the build.

This was one of the finest examples of what Juve could be this year if they were on the front foot. McKennie just managed to keep a pass along the sideline in bounds, before working it inside via Bremer and Locatelli, each of whom hit their passes first-time.

Locatelli’s first-time pass found Vlahovic running the channel, and he cracked a first-time half-volley that was past Provodel almost before he could move.

5 - Kenan Yildiz, Serie A Rd. 17, at Frosinone

If there’s one thing we learned about Yildiz’s game this year, it’s that he can dribble. Like, really well. He has a voracious appetite for nutmegs, often hitting defenders with moves that brought to mind Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s catchphrase as Shang Tsung in the first Mortal Kombat movie: “your soul is mine!”

It’s fitting that his first Juventus goal came from one of those magic dribbles. In this case, he somehow squeezed his way through three defenders before stroking it home at the near post—a great way to celebrate his first Juve start.

4 - Dusan Vlahovic, Coppa Italia Final vs. Atalanta

Juve’s chance for their first silverware in three years came at the Stadio Olimpico, where they faced Atalanta in the Coppa Italia final for the second time in four years. Like four years ago, La Dea came into the game as favorites, but Juve ran out winners.

The difference in the Bianconeri’s 1-0 win—what else?—came early, when Cambiaso cut Vlahovic losse behind the Atalanta defense. The striker held off a physical attempt at recovery by Isak Hien before rifling it past Carnesecchi.

It was the kind of moment Juve had bought the big Serb for, to score big goals in big games.

3 - Dusan Vlahovic, Serie A Rd. 20, vs. Sassuolo

Juve came into their reverse fixture against Sassuolo with revenge on their minds, after a 4-2 loss at the Mapei Stadium had brought Juventus’ flying start to a screeching halt.

Vlahovic set the tone in the 3-0 thrashing on the quarter hour. He stopped a square ball from Fabio Miretti dead 19 yards from the goal, quickly shifted himself to get onto his favored left foot, and unleashed an absolute rocket that flew neatly under the crossbar and into the net.

It was the start of one of the high points of Juve’s season during their January hot streak. Unfortunately it didn’t last.

2 - Kenan Yildiz, Coppa Italia Quarterfinal, vs. Frosinone

I have a soft spot for goals that are scored whilst flying through the air. Diving headers, leaping side kicks, if you’re propelling yourself forward through space while you’re scoring, you’re gonna tug at my heartstrings a little.

That’s what Yildiz did to put a capper on Juve’s easy 4-0 win over Frosinone in the quarterfinal of the Coppa Italia. Arkadiusz Milik had already stamped his authority on the game with a 48-minute hat trick, but Yildiz provided the exclamation point when McKennie floated a long pass into the left channel. The young Turkiye international took a flying leap to meet the ball in midair and slam the ball home at the near post. It was a pretty goal on all fronts, but it had one that was just that tiny bit better that beat it out.

1 - Timothy Weah, Coppa Italia Round of 16, vs. Salernitana

Tim Weah’s first season at Juventus was a resounding disappointment. During preseason we were tantalized by his explosive pace, and it looked like he would be an excellent replacement for Juan Cuadrado on the right side.

Injuries and ineffectiveness tempered those hopes, but boy howdy did he have himself a moment in the Coppa round of 16 against Salernitana. Juve had already moved into “stop, stop, he’s already dead” territory when Weah took a pass from Locatelli, carried forward, and then unleashed a 25-yard piledriver that screamed into the top corner and in off the bottom of the bar.

This was easily the purest strike of the year for Juve, and it rightly (in my opinion) takes its place atop this year’s goal countdown.