In The Zone: Weston McKennie hauls Juventus through
Thursday, January 22, 2026
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UEFA Technical Observer Aitor Karanka analyses how the Juventus midfield came to the fore to seal their progress to the knockout phase.
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When the going gets tough... the Juventus midfielders get going.
That is one way of summing up how Luciano Spalletti’s side achieved a hard-earned victory over Benfica to seal a place in the UEFA Champions League knockout phase.
As will be highlighted in this analysis, brought to you by FedEx, Juventus owed their 2-0 Matchday 7 success to second-half strikes by Khephren Thuram – his first in the Champions League – and Weston McKennie. Both goals were the product of a midfield player penetrating space in and around the box.
"Inside the penalty area, there's little space; you have to go and carve it out from your opponents." That was Juventus coach Spalletti's observation and that is precisely what McKennie did when scoring his 64th-minute goal, which features in the first clip above.
As UEFA Technical Observer Aitor Karanka noted, Juventus altered their build-up in the second half, looking for balls over the Benfica press to where Spalletti's front four were now operating with more mobility than before the break.
This shift was embodied by their attacking midfielder McKennie, who had started the game on the right wing in Spalletti's 4-2-3-1, but now came inside more. "McKennie started to move more between the lines," said Karanka. "They started to find space better and McKennie is a dangerous player between the lines."
He underlined that danger by scoring for the third match running in the competition, leading Spalletti to add of the United States international: "He has these qualities, with finishing potential that can grow even further. He's a player who reads where the ball can go ahead of time."
"He's a player who reads where the ball can go ahead of time."
The video analysis concludes with Thuram’s opening goal, which came after 55 minutes. As a measure of the tightness of the contest, Benfica had a marginally higher xG – 1.44 to their hosts’ 1.38 – but it was Juventus who got the breakthrough, which permitted them to play with more freedom and confidence thereafter.
For Karanka, Thuram warranted his Player of the Match award not only for his goal but for an impressive all-round display.
“Even in moments where Juventus were not doing so well, he tried to keep playing and out of possession he did a lot of good work,” he explained. “He had an attacking impact too with the first goal – the match had got a bit complicated for Juve and the first goal in a game like that is so important.”
A Liga and UEFA Champions League winner with Real Madrid between two spells at Athletic Club, defender Aitor Karanka became Spain's Under-16 coach after hanging up his boots, and has since occupied the hot seat at Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest, Birmingham, Granada and Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
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