Football Daily | The Galatasaray Expendables lay waste Juve on night to forget for Cabal

. UK edition

Davinson Sánchez celebrates scoring for Galatasaray against Juventus
Davinson Sánchez! Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

In today’s Football Daily: Turkish delight for all apart from the Bianconeri

GHOSTS THAT HIDE IN THE NIGHT

An Italian word that roughly translates to the grit and fierce determination upon which Juventus have historically based their relentless, never-say-die attitude, “grinta” was fairly conspicuous by its absence in Istanbul on Tuesday night. Instead it was replaced by a collective performance that had all the structural integrity of a soggy cannolo. Having come from a goal down to lead at half-time courtesy of two Teun Koopmeiners goals, Juve did show a modicum of resilience in their Bigger Cup shellacking at the hands of Galatasaray, but only before a second-half collapse so preposterous it suggested their half-time refreshments had been spiked with LSD or magic mushrooms. While there was always a decent chance an ensemble cast of Galatasaray Expendables featuring Davinson Sánchez, Lucas Torreira, Victor Osimhen, Leroy Sané, Mauro Icardi and Ilkay Gündogan would give their Italian visitors a good run for their money over two legs, few could have foreseen them spanking five goals past the Bianconeri in the first one.

Round Turin way, there has been plenty of blame to go around, much of it apportioned to the hapless Juan Cabal. Brought on as a half-time replacement for Andrea Cambiaso, who was having his backside handed to him and tiptoeing his way along the disciplinary tightrope, the replacement left-back conceded the free-kick that led to Sánchez shouldering home his first ever Bigger Cup goal and picked up two yellow cards before disconsolately walking off after 22 minutes. An evening Cabal won’t forget in a hurry, his cameo earned him the accolade of “undisputed MVP of the disaster” from the Italian daily Tuttosport, who described his impact as “a horror movie”, noting that he “stained everything he touched”. As withering put-downs go it merits an oofs-up-to-11 on the Vicente del Bosque meme scale. Rivalling his Colombian teammate for the accolade of worst of a very bad Juve bunch on the pitch, Lloyd Kelly was bullied throughout by Osimhen and had his pocket picked by the Nigerian in the buildup to Gala’s fourth after receiving the mother of all hospital passes from Khéphren Thuram as Juve faffed around at the back. “Any hesitation can cost dearly,” said Juve boss Luciano Spalletti … before the game.

While he is unlikely to ever rival Diego Maradona or even Scott McTominay in the Neapolitan popularity stakes, for one night only Noa Lang was crowned undisputed King of Naples. On loan at Galatasaray from the Serie A champions, the Dutch midfielder chipped in with two goals to help put Napoli’s bitter rivals to the sword. Sacha Boey completed a rout that had been started by Gabriel Sara, a player who famously swapped the hostile Championship cauldron that is Carrow Road for the comparatively tranquil atmosphere of Rams Park. “Even with a red card, we should not have allowed all those scoring opportunities,” sighed Juve defender Pierre Kalulu. “We need to figure out what happened, but it’s in the past now and in football you must be able to quickly move on to the next match.” Suspended for Juve’s next outing against Como, Kalulu’s next match will be the second leg against Galatasaray. And after Tuesday’s trimming, it is one he and his teammates are unlikely to approach with relish.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Join Tom Bassam from 5.45pm GMT for minute-by-minute updates from Qarabag 1-2 Newcastle in men’s Bigger Cup, before Sarah Rendell guides you through Arsenal 4-0 Leuven (agg: 8-0) in the women’s edition, while Scott Murray is in the Premier League hot seat for Wolves 1-3 Arsenal.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are. But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them” – Vinícius Júnior pulls no punches after Real Madrid’s 1-0 first-leg win at Benfica, condemning the failure of referee François Letexier to act after alleged abuse by the hosts’ Gianluca Prestianni. The match was delayed for 10 minutes with Madrid’s players ready to walk off before play resumed. Prestianni later denied the allegations, while Kick It Out has accused José Mourinho of gaslighting for his response.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily tour of refereeing nightmares across Europe, I’d like to wave an assistant referee’s flag for England. Darren England’s immaculate reffing of the Macclesfield v Brentford FA Cup tie showed it can be done, and done very well, without VAR” – John French.

Re: the question in yesterday’s Football Daily: ‘Who wants to be a referee?’ Well, I do. I love football. I am a very weak player. If I do not referee games, those games may not get played. The only thing worse than a game with several refereeing errors is a game where no referees are present and players try to make calls themselves. I have been part of that, too. What would help is more excellent former players who choose to referee” – George Affeldt.

Dare I make a suggestion from across the pond to help remedy football’s terrible implementation of VAR? Virtually none of America’s conduct is praiseworthy these days, but the one thing we have done well is the way video reviews have been implemented. The key has been the challenge system, rather than reviewing almost every important call, as in the Premier League. Managers/coaches are given a very limited number of challenges to on-field decisions, and they need to decide whether or not to challenge almost immediately. If their challenge is correct, the call is overturned and they get another to use later. If they are wrong, they lose the ability to challenge any important ref howlers that might be just around the corner. The video booth can’t intrude with some piece of minutiae that no one on the field noticed, and we don’t typically have 1,057 controversies per game. There is one downside for fans: highly entertaining manager meltdowns are now a rarity here. If you really believe a call is wrong, you challenge it, and if you don’t have a challenge because you were wrong in your last one, you eat some humble pie, something the former-player pundits of the Premier League should consider adding to their diets” – Steve Plever.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Steve Plever. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.