Juventus striker Randal Kolo Muani bore down on the Real Madrid goal, and most believed this was the moment.

Kolo Muani had exchanged a beautiful little give-and-go with Kenan Yildiz in the middle of the pitch, and the Frenchman’s pace took him past Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni.

On loan from Paris Saint-Germain, Kolo Muani raced through as a one-on-one with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois beckoned.

Instead of shifting to his left, rounding the Belgian and slotting the ball home, Kolo Muani attempted to chip Courtois from the edge of the box.

The effort was decent, the ball looped over Courtois, and slowly sailed over the crossbar on to the roof of the net.

It was the sixth minute of a sweltering and energy-sapping game in Miami. That was as good as it got for the Old Lady.

Juve were, to their credit, the better side in the opening 45 minutes. But by the beginning of the second half, Xabi Alonso instructed his Madrid players to click through the gears, and there was little Juve could do to stop them.

The only goal of the game arrived courtesy of a powerful Gonzalo García header from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross. Madrid kept Juve at arm’s length for the remainder of the game, yet the direction of it could have been very different had Kolo Muani taken that early chance.

As Juve’s adventure in the US comes to an end, there is much for Igor Tudor to ponder.

On the one hand, the club earned close to €28million in FIFA prize money, not a bad sum for four games. On the other, it is clear they need to do a lot of work in the transfer window.

The Juve that lines up on the opening day of the Serie A season against Parma in seven weeks could look very different to the one we saw on Tuesday night.

The futures of Kolo Muani and Francisco Conceicao hang in the balance. Their loan spells will now end and whether they will be in Turin come the end of August remains to be seen.

The Dusan Vlahovic saga will continue to rumble on. Juve need to offload the Serb in order to conduct business, but by all accounts the striker does not want to leave this summer and options where his €12m-net-per-season salary could be matched are limited

Vlahovic barely featured in the States and raised a few eyebrows by liking Jude Bellingham’s Instagram post following Madrid’s victory.

“We need as a club to re-learn how to win,” said general manager Damien Comolli in the wake of the loss to Madrid. Comolli, who has been in the job a matter of weeks, has a lot of work to do in order to shape Tudor’s Juve ahead of the new campaign,

In defence, the return of Brazilian Bremer cannot come soon enough, with the argument valid that his injury last October changed the complexity of the Bianconeri’s season. Lloyd Kelly only arrived at the start of the year while Pierre Kalulu has been inconsistent.

Despite Michele Di Gregorio’s best efforts, Juve’s only clean sheet in America came against Al Ain in the opener, with Tudor’s defence looking vulnerable when the opposition attacked. The club will likely address the centre-back position in the summer window.

Khephren Thuram continues to shine and Tudor is likely to build his midfield around the Frenchman although Juve lack a conductor, someone to initiate moves and dictate the tempo. Thuram is better served further up the field.

Juve will likely attempt to offload Teun Koopmeiners or Douglas Luiz in the summer, but similar to Vlahovic, there is no queue of clubs ready to make a move.

Elsewhere, the futures of Timothy Weah and Samuel Mbangula are also up in the air in the aftermath of their collapsed double move to Nottingham Forest.

The nucleus of a good squad is already there, yet some fine tuning is needed. Former midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi believes they need three big signings in order to compete for the Scudetto next season.

Tacchinardi highlighted Napoli’s want-away striker Victor Osimhen, Atalanta’s Ederson and Bologna’s Jhon Lucumi as potential targets, believing the trio would offer leadership. Whether Juve can get any of them depends on their ability to sell.

So, there is a lot for Comolli, Tudor and new director of football Giorgio Chiellini to mull over the next few weeks.

Now with the 2024-25 season finally in the books, the real work begins.