After one of the most strenuous weeks in a long time, Juventus hosted Parma in their quest to climb the Serie A table and remain in the Champions League places.
Andrea Pirlo was able to recall talismanic striker Cristiano Ronaldo back to the fold alongside Paulo Dybala in attack. Danilo, Leonardo Bonucci and Gianluigi Buffon were also brought in to the back line replacing Wojciech Szczęsny, Giorgio Chiellini and Federico Chiesa. Juan Cuadrado, who started the last game against Atalanta at right back, moved into midfield with American Weston McKennie switching wings.
The final change was in the midfield engine room with Arthur replacing Adrien Rabiot.
For Parma, safety seems further away than ever after their last gasp defeat to relegation rivals Cagliari. Manager Roberto D’Aversa brought in Graziano Pellè and Gervinho to the front line for Andreas Cornelius and Slovakian attacker Juraj Kucka. The final change was in goal with Simone Colombi taking the place of number one Luigi Sepe.
Juventus were on the attack from the first whistle and forced Colombi into a number of early saves, the best coming from Ronaldo whose first time side footed effort was stopped smartly to his left after being found by a low Dybala pass into the box.
Parma after the early exchanges did a better job of keeping the ball and opened the scoring through Uruguayan Gastón Brugman. McKennie had felled Gervinho just on the edge of the box to the left hand side and the midfielder stepped up and side footed the ball calmly just over the wall and past Buffon at his near post.
Juventus shook off this blow and sort to restore order and achieved parity just before half time. Juventus won a corner and the cross was headed down by Matthijs De Ligt to left back Alex Sandro on the edge of the box and the Brazilian took one touch to control the ball before firing it into the top left hand corner.
The first half ended 1-1 but that was not to last. From the restart Juventus applied pressure to the Parma defense and Ronaldo fed the ball wide on the right to Cuadrado who lifted a first time cross back into the center of the box looking for the onrushing Dybala. The Argentine jumped but missed the ball but Alex Sandro was backing up his team mate at the back post and headed in for his and his sides second of the game.
De Ligt made it 3-1 for the Bianconeri just before the 70th minute mark. An inswinging corner was lifted into the box by Cuadrado towards the near post and the Dutch center back made a simple run to meet it and send the ball past the beaten Colombi.
That was to be the final goal with the home side’s quality shining through. Next up is a trip to Florence on Sunday for Juventus where they take on Fiorentina as they look to keep pressure on the Milan sides.
Parma will turn to Saturday evening where they host Crotone in an absolute must win to give themselves any chance of staying in the top flight.
MATCH REPORT
April 21, 2021 – Serie A 2020-21 Round 32
JUVENTUS-PARMA 3-1
SCORERS: 25′ Brugman (P), 43′ Alex Sandro (J), 47′ Alex Sandro (J), 68′ De Ligt (J)
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JUVENTUS (4-4-2): Buffon; Danilo, Bonucci, De Ligt, Alex Sandro; Cuadrado (74′ Ramsey), Arthur, Bentancur (74′ Rabiot), McKennie (74′ Kulusevski); Dybala, Cristiano Ronaldo (Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Chiellini, Demiral, Bernardeschi, Frabotta, Felix Correia, Morata) Coach: Pirlo |
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PARMA (4-3-3): Colombi; Laurini, Osorio, Bani, Giu. Pezzella (81′ Busi); Grassi, Brugman (71′ Hernani), Kurtic; Man (81′ Karamoh), Pellè (61′ Cornelius), Gervinho (62′ Mihaila) (Sepe, Zagaritis, Dierckx, Valenti, Sohm, Traorè, Brunetta) Coach: D’Aversa |
REFEREE: Mr. Giacomelli from Trieste
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Mc Kennie, Cristiano Ronaldo (J); Hernani, Karamoh (P); Extra Time: 1st Half 0′, 2nd Half 4′