Juventus will travel to Cagliari without Norberto Neto, the goalkeeper brought back to Continassa only two weeks ago to ease an already difficult injury situation. Luciano Spalletti is set to be without Manuel Locatelli, Kenan Yildiz, Khephren Thuram and Kamil Grabara for an extended period, and Neto’s return as a free agent after his spell at Botafogo had offered a measure of cover following Grabara’s setback.
Instead, the 37-year-old Brazilian must serve a one-match ban carried over from Brazil. As in the recent match against Atalanta, Guglielmo Vicario will be joined in Juventus’s goalkeeper group by Carlo Pinsoglio and Ionut Radu, while Neto waits for his chance to become available.
A Brazilian incident reaches Sardinia
The sanction stems from Botafogo’s visit to Bahia on 30 May, during the 18th round of the Brasileirao. Bahia were competing for places in the Copa Sudamericana and the Libertadores qualifying rounds, while Botafogo were still in contention for the Sudamericana but held only a three-point cushion above the relegation zone.
Botafogo were ahead in the second minute of seven added minutes before half-time when Neto held the ball for longer than the permitted eight seconds. Referee Davi de Oliveira Lacerda applied the recently introduced rule and awarded Bahia a corner. Neto reacted angrily, directing insults at the official, and was sent off. He later apologised on social media for losing control.
That red card proved to be Neto’s final appearance for Botafogo, with the league subsequently stopping and his contract not renewed. The disciplinary process continued, however, as he was called before Brazil’s Superior Court of Sports Justice on a charge of offending the honour of the refereeing team, an accusation carrying a minimum four-match suspension.
His legal representatives secured a reclassification to a lesser charge of simple insult, reducing the punishment to one fixture. That single match will now be served in Serie A, leaving Juventus to manage another absence at Cagliari before Neto can begin his second spell in Turin in earnest.
