Cristiano Ronaldo Brace Propels Juventus Win Over Udinese

Italian Football, Juventus, Serie A, Serie A 2020-2021, Udinese 2 comments

Four goals to Udinese and Juventus put themselves promptly back on track after their pre-holiday disastrous loss to Fiorentina that saw them plummeting 10 points below table leader Milan. The home Bianconeri benefited of a new Cristiano Ronaldo brace, with Federico Chiesa and Paulo Dybala rounding up the score to easily dispose of a patched-up Friulani side on Sunday night.

Among the visitors, coach Luca Gotti could welcome back Kevin Lasagna in attack alongside Ignacio Pussetto but had basically no alternatives in his back three due to the forced absences of Rodrigo Becao and Bram Nuytinck. Thus, regular starter Samir was supported by Kevin Bonifazi and Sebastien De Maio in the back.

For Juventus, Andrea Pirlo deployed four men in defense with Danilo and Alex Sandro acting as full backs flanking Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs De Ligt. Rodrigo Bentancur and Weston McKennie covered the middle of the park, with Federico Chiesa and Aaron Ramsey covering the sides. Alvaro Morata’s absence on the front line gave Paulo Dybala a rare chance to be a starter this season.

There was little to report from the initial stages of the game, except for Rodrigo De Paul seeing his winning deflection from a Lasagna cross disallowed by the VAR – which spot a handball on the part of the Argentine midfielder in the build-up.

But things can change pretty fast when you have Cristiano Ronaldo on your side. After a pretty colorless 30 minutes, Ronaldo took the matter into his own hands to draw first blood for the Old Lady. CR7 received the ball from Aaron Ramsey and bested both Samir and Sebastien De Maio before whipping the ball past Juan Musso with a deadly right-foot effort.

Juventus built on their momentum and were quick to test Musso again but the goalie managed to deny Ronaldo’s next effort with a fine dive to his left.

After the break, Juventus picked up from where they’d left off as Ronaldo chipped the ball for Federico Chiesa and the former Fiorentina man put it past Musso with a fine left-foot shot.

On 52 minutes, Chiesa recovered the ball in midfield and ignited Ramsey’s swift counterattack. The Welshman sneaked between Kevin Bonifazi and Marvin Zeegelaar to see his first effort saved by Musso. He was still fast to pounce on the ball again and slot it home for Juventus’ third  but the VAR disallowed his effort this time, also detecting an handball on his part.

The narrow escape gave Udinese some confidence but luck was not on their side. From a left-side cross by Samir, Jens Stryger-Larsen’s header effort deserved a winning outcome but Wojciech Szczesny’s crossbar had a different opinion and the score remained at 0-2.

The visitors’ illusion didn’t last long as, with 20 minutes to go, Cristiano Ronaldo wrapped the three points for Juventus making the best out of a Rodrigo Bentancur service after the South American intercepted a naive passing attempt from Samir in midfield.

Tonight’s brace consolidated CR7’s lead in the Serie A top-scorers table, the Portuguese star now having 14 goals under his belt.

Szczesny’s crossbar rattled again in the 72nd minute to deny Zeegelaar’s shot from point blank range but the Dutchman eventually received his consolation prize into added time, tapping the ball in after an Ilja Nestorovski challenge was defused by Juventus’ Polish goalkeeper and scoring one for Udinese’s honor.

Paulo Dybala joined the party just before full time, converting a Danilo cross into Juventus’ fourth goal of the night – giving Andrea Pirlo’s side a major boost of confidence as they prepare to face Milan in next round’s match clou on Wednesday.

For Luca Gotti and Udinese – who are now winless since four games after having previously collected three wins in a row – it’s time to go back to the drawing board, though the multiple absences are surely not helping the Little Zebras along their season.  

 

MATCH REPORT

January 3, 2021 – Serie A 2020-21 Round 15
JUVENTUS-UDINESE 4-1

SCORERS: 31′ Cristiano Ronaldo (J), 49′ Chiesa (J), 70′ Cristiano Ronaldo (J), 91′ Zeegelaar (U), 93′ Dybala (J)

JUVENTUS (4-4-2): Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci (83′ Chiellini), De Ligt, Alex Sandro (83′ Chiellini); Chiesa (74′ Bernardeschi), Bentancur, McKennie (64′ Arthur), Ramsey (74′ Kulusevski); Dybala, cristiano Ronaldo (Buffon, Da Graca, Demiral, Di Pardo, Fagioli, Pinsoglio, Portanova) Coach: Pirlo
UDINESE (3-5-2): Musso; De Maio (64′ Molina), Bonifazi, Samir; Stryger Larsen, De Paul, Walace (81′ Makengo), Pereyra (74′ Mandragora), Zeegelaar; Lasagna (74′ Nestorovski), Pussetto (46′ Forestieri) (Scuffet, Gasparini, Arslan, Coulibaly, Palumbo, Ter Avest) Coach: Gotti

REFEREE: Mr. Giacomelli from Trieste
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Chiesa, McKennie, De Ligt (J); Extra Time: 1st Half 2′, 2nd Half 3′

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