Serie A | Juventus 3-0 Como: Mbangula opens Motta era in style | OneFootball

Juventus had a confident opening victory over Como thanks to surprise starter Samuel Mbangula, Tim Weah and Andrea Cambiaso, but Cesc Fabregas was again unlucky with injuries.

The Bianconeri stuttered in pre-season friendlies, cutting out star names like Federico Chiesa and Filip Kostic, with Arkadiusz Milik and Fabio Miretti injured, Danilo not fully fit, but Thiago Motta still pulled a huge surprise starting 20-year-old Next Gen talent Mbangula rather than Douglas Luiz. Cesc Fabregas and his team were already knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Sampdoria, during which they lost Raphael Varane to injury, while Alessio Iovine was suspended.

See how it all unfolded on the LIVEBLOG.

Dusan Vlahovic nodded an Andrea Cambiaso cross wide of the near post, but Como lost Daniele Baselli to an adductor injury early on.

Incredibly, it was the shock starter who opened the scoring, as Mbangula cut inside from the left and bent the finish into the far bottom corner with the right boot to send the Juventus crowd wild.

Kenan Yildiz tested Pepe Reina from distance, then Vlahovic’s free kick from a huge distance shaved a coat of paint off the near post. Moments later, Como got into a muddle playing out from the back and Vlahovic pounced, his angled drive deflected onto the inside of the far post by a desperate Federico Barba lunge.

The second goal arrived on the stroke of half-time, as Kenan Yildiz burst down the left, pulled back from the by-line and the Vlahovic dummy let it through for Tim Weah to sweep in off the underside of the crossbar from 13 yards with his left foot.

Weah scored his first Serie A goal while struggling with a muscular issue and made way for Juventus youth product Nicoló Savona, moving Cambiaso into a more advanced role.

Within 30 seconds of the restart, Juve had the ball in the net again with a Vlahovic glancing header on the Juan Cabal cross from the left. However, VAR disallowed it for an offside position in the build-up from Cambiaso.

Vlahovic was unlucky again when his first attempt was parried by Reina from point-blank range and the follow-up header bounced off the upright.

Cambiaso failed to make the most of a misplaced Alberto Moreno back-pass, but Como were extraordinarily unfortunate to lose Oliver Abdilgaard to injury caused by a Manuel Locatelli bookable offence just six minutes into his Serie A debut.

Juventus had penalty appeals for Barba handball, but the Como defender accidentally kicked it onto his own hand when controlling the cross, so it could not realistically be considered a spot-kick.

Gabriel Strefezza drilled just wide, but Cambiaso got the third in stoppages when cutting inside from the right to bend a left-footed finish into the far bottom corner from the edge of the box.

Douglas Luiz almost got a fourth, his deflected effort looping up and flapped off the line by Reina at full stretch.

Juventus 3-0 Como

Mbangula 23 (J), Weah 45 (J), Cambiaso 90 (J)

Juventus: Di Gregorio; Cambiaso, Bremer, Gatti, Cabal; K Thuram (Fagioli 66), Locatelli (Douglas Luiz 79); Weah (Savona 46), Yildiz, Mbangula; Vlahovic

Como: Reina; Sala, Goldaniga, Barba, Moreno; Strefezza, Braunöder, Baselli (Engelhardt 21), Da Cunha (Abdilgaard 55) (Verdi 62); Belotti (Gabrielloni 55), Cutrone (Cerri 62)