Two Cristiano Ronaldo penalties helped Juventus make a full score at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium as the Bianconeri toppled Genoa 3-1 in Serie A Round 11. After a dull first period of the game where both sides maintained a clean sheet, Andrea Pirlo’s side took the lead with Paulo Dybala’s first seasonal goal, but saw it cancelled by Stefano Sturaro’s almost immediate equalizer.
However, the Rossoblu naively conceded two penalties to the opposition – a very risky mistake to make when the one tasked to bury the spot is Cristiano Ronaldo.
And so, as the Portuguese collected two more markings to bring his Serie A goal tally this season to 10 – reaching Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the top of the goal-scorers table – Genoa had to concede their 7th loss out of 11 games so far and were at least lucky that direct relegation contenders Spezia, Fiorentina, and Torino also came with empty hands out of their weekend outlets.
?? Ecco gli 11 Grifoni per #FiorentinaGenoa
— Genoa CFC (@GenoaCFC) December 13, 2020
⚽️ #SerieA
? #ForzaGenoa pic.twitter.com/fllIuHbeU9
This time, Andrea Pirlo resorted to a four-man defense with Juan Cuadrado and Alex Sandro acting as full-backs plus Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs De Ligt in the middle of the defense. Weston McKennie and Federico Chiesa were deployed as wing-backs in a rock-solid midfield line also featuring Rodrigo Bentancur and Adrien Rabiot.
Paulo Dybala was Cristiano Ronaldo’s attacking partner from the start despite Alvaro Morata having served his one-match ban. The Spaniard started from the bench as La Joya got another chance as a starter.
For Genoa, Rolando Maran managed to recover starting goalkeeper Mattia Perin who wore the captain armband in the occasion. The Rossoblu also featured a 4-4-2 lineup with youngster Niccolò Rovella in the middle of the park and Marko Pjaca enjoying a starting spot on the front-line alongside Gianluca Scamacca after his winning effort against Fiorentina on Monday.
The Bianconeri could have opened the scoring after less than two minutes, but Rabiot’s winning deflection from a free kick came by means of a handball and was rightly disallowed.
But after the aggressive start, it took more than 45 minutes to see another clear scoring chance as the remainder of the first half unfolded with no significant effort from either side. Juventus did try to trouble the scorers on a few occasions but Maran’s side managed to defend themselves with order and when the referee blew for half time a goalless draw was the inevitable outcome.
?⚪️⚫️ Today’s team is ??!#GenoaJuve #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/dk37BEGIui
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) December 13, 2020
The game seemed to follow the same pattern after the restart but, on 56 minutes, it was finally time for Paulo Dybala to score his first seasonal goal. Served by Weston McKennie from an unusual right wing-back position, La Joya switched the ball to his left foot and made his way past Mattia Perin with a deadly strike that hit the bottom right corner of the goal.
But Juve’s lead lasted less than five minutes as former Bianconero Stefano Sturaro found himself in the right place on the far post to receive Luca Pellegrini’s chipping effort and take advantage of Alex Sandro’s poor marking to draw level for the Grifone.
Pirlo’s side promptly re-took control of the operations and went close to move the score again but an offside position cancelled Dybala’s second, frustrating his overhead kick effort from a Ronaldo service.
Juventus’ next effort was courtesy from Federico Chiesa, who serviced Cristiano Ronaldo from the left flank with a mouth-watering chance for a header conversion. Perin however managed to push back CR7’s challenge right on the goal line.
And so, Ronaldo had to bury the spot to bring the Bianconeri ahead again as he converted a penalty allowed for a Nicolò Rovella tackle on Juan Cuadrado. It was the ninth Serie A goal this season for the Portuguese star.
Rolando Maran showed he didn’t want to give in and tried his luck with two super-offensive substitutions, bringing in Goran Pandev and 22-year-old Giuseppe Caso for the final assault. But all his chances fell to pieces as Luca Pellegrini came out with a clumsy back-pass in his own box, forcing Perin to slide tackle Alvaro Morata to prevent him from reaching the ball.
Referee Marco Di Bello could not but point at the penalty spot again, offering Ronaldo a golden chance to bag his daily brace and get the game done and dusted for Juventus. The Bianconeri reached 23 points in the table – 3 behind league leader Milan, while Genoa remained gloomily entangled at the bottom of the rank, just one point ahead of last-placed Crotone.
MATCH REPORT
December 13, 2020 – Serie A 2020-21 Round 11
GENOA-JUVENTUS 1-3
SCORERS: 56′ Dybala (J), 61′ Sturaro (G), 78′ Cristiano Ronaldo (J, pen.), 88′ Cristiano Ronaldo (J, pen.)
 |
GENOA (4-4-2): Perin; Masiello, Goldaniga, Bani, Pellegrini; Lerager, Radovanovic (82′ Caso), Rovella (82′ Pandev), Sturaro (66′ Behrami); Scamacca (66′ Destro), Pjaca (73′ Shomurodov) (Paleari, Zima, Czyborra, Dumbravanu, Zajc, Melegoni, Ghiglione) Coach: Maran |
 |
JUVENTUS (4-4-2): Szczesny; Cuadrado, De Ligt (91′ Dragusin), Bonucci, Alex Sandro; McKennie, Bentancur, Rabiot (66′ Morata), Chiesa (83′ Bernardeschi); Dybala (83′ Kulusevski), Cristiano Ronaldo (Buffon, Israel, Danilo, Dragusin, Frabotta, Arthur, Ramsey, Portanova, Da Graca) Coach: Pirlo |
REFEREE: Mr. Di Bello from Brindisi
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Rabiot, McKennie, Bentancur (J), Goldaniga, Bani (G); Extra Time: 1st Half 1′, 2nd Half 3′
2 comments
Comments are closed.