Juventus Dispose of Crotone as Cristiano Ronaldo Bags Another Brace

Round 23 of Serie A ended with no surprises on Monday night as Juventus easily disposed of bottom-ranked Crotone to leapfrog Atalanta, Lazio, and Roma in the table and positioned themselves in the third place – four point behind second-placed Milan.

A brace from Cristiano Ronaldo and a Weston McKennie goal did the trick for the Bianconeri, who took almost one half of the game to breach into Giovanni Stroppa’s defense, but were never really troubled by the Rossoblu. The only bad piece of news for Andrea Pirlo is that Danilo picked up a yellow card that will force him to miss the next Serie A game in Verona.

Juventus had quite a few notable absentees among their lines, including defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, as well as Juan Cuadrado and Alvaro Morata. Pirlo chose a 4-4-2 setup with Dejan Kulusevski partnering with CR7 on the front line.

Giovanni Stroppa answered with a 4-2-3-1 setup with the clear intention to limit the damage. The Pitagorici had managed to hold Juventus to 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture back in October, but were helped by Federico Chiesa’s send off early into the second half. It was difficult to expect the same outcome tonight.

?? ???????? ??????? ⚪️⚫️#JuveCrotone #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/7g9TD2ABWr

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) February 22, 2021

The Bianconeri took quite some time to earn the fruits of their predominance. Alex Cordaz kept his float aside for a while as he denied Cristiano Ronaldo and then deflected onto the crossbar an Aaron Ramsey effort from close-range.

But when, on 38 minutes, Alex Sandro picked Ronaldo with a perfectly-timed cross in the middle of the box, it was child’s play for the Portuguese to head the ball home. Oddly enough, Crotone were the only Serie A team against whom CR had not scored yet. The mission was finally accomplished and, just to make things more clear, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner added a second to the tally just before the half time break.

On 45 minutes, Ronaldo tested again Cordaz with a shot from sidereal distance that Crotone’s goalie struggled to parry back. Then, as Ramsey run to recover the ball and crossed it in the middle of the box, he was ready to slot the ball home for the second time, once again with a clinical headed effort that left no chance to the poor Rossoblu keeper and captain. 

The fun thing is, Ronaldo still had not had enough. Before the referee could blow for half time, he went inches away from sealing his hat trick but, thankfully for Crotone, his conclusion from the right side was, for once, not worthy of his fame.

65’ | ? | ALMOST A HAT-TRICK FOR @CRISTIANO! Cordaz just denies CR7 with his feet!#JuveCrotone [2-0] #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/m1JibRlXaC

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) February 22, 2021

There was not much left to say in the second half. Juventus continued to look for the third goal and finally found it with Weston McKennie, who collected his fourth seasonal goal on 66 minutes. Then, there was still time for 20-year-old midfielder Nicolò Fagioli to make his Serie A debut and for Danilo to pick an unnecessary yellow card that may give Pirlo a few problems ahead of the next domestic game.

For what concerns Crotone, their battle for survival continues. It is not at the Allianz Stadium that they could expect to collect the points they’ll need to avoid relegation.    

 

MATCH REPORT

February 22, 2021 – Serie A 2020-2021 Round 23
JUVENTUS-CROTONE 3-0

SCORERS: 38′ Cristiano Ronaldo, 45’+2′ Cristiano Ronaldo, 66′ McKennie

REFEREE: Mr. Marini from Rome
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Ramsey, Danilo, Frabotta (J), Marrone (C); Extra Time: 1st Half 4′, 2nd Half 3′