Juventus won 3-1 against Sassuolo in a match of the 17th round of Serie A. Although tormented by problems with many injured players, the Old Lady prevailed over his opponent in one of the more interesting matches in this round. The champions were without three of their four titular defenders – Juan Cuadrado, Alex Sandro and Matthijs de Ligt all with coronavirus. Today, Dybala, McKennie and in all probability also Chiesa were injured and it is not clear whether they will be available in the next matches. However, the boy of Andrea Pirlo started 2021 very strong with 4-1 over Udinese and 3-1 over Milan at Giuseppe Meazza, and tonight they added another three points in the race to catch the leaders.
The first half began with a quick attack for the guests, which led to a shot, but it went wide. The ensuing corner did not pose a danger to Szczesny. Gradually Juventus imposed their own gamepace and transferred the events to the opponent’s field. Sassuolo players initially acted on the limit of the permissible, with each foul appearing potentially punishable by an official warning, but the referee did spear his yellow cards.
The heavy cost of the hard play paid McKennie, who before the 20th minutute was forced to leave the field injured and ten minutes later Dybala fallowed too.
Pedro Obiang marked the peak of this negative trend on the part of the guests. Three minutes before the break, he entered Chiesa’s legs roughly, nearly breaking one of his ankles. Initially, the referee showed only a yellow card to the offending player, but after reviewing the situation through the VAR system, he picked up a direct red card from Obiang and left Sassuolo with one less man on the field.
In the 51st minute Danilo scored the first goal of the match in a very attractive way. The ball was cleared in another Juve attack, after which he caught it with a stunner from a long distance. Only 7 minutes later, Gregoire Defrell received a good pass between two of the defenders of the Old Lady and with a precise shot left no chance for Szczesny for 1-1.
Eight minutes before the final blow, Aaron Ramsey scored the important second goal for Juventus, after a cross by Frabotta, parallel to the goal line. The final 3-1 was formed by Ronaldo, who took the ball on the wing, advanced on his own and sent it into the net to confirm the success of his team, in the second minute of the extra time given by the referee.
Today’s victory is third consecutive for Juventus and they are already 4th with 33 points and a game less than the teams in front. Leader is still AC Milan with 40 points.
