Juventus left it late to beat a downtrodden Hellas Verona side at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday night. Andrea Cambiaso’s last-gasp winner has fired Bianconeri to the top of the Serie A standings, at least until tomorrow.
Brimming with confidence following a 1-0 win against 10-man Milan last weekend, Juventus came into this fixture keen to tighten the noose on Serie A leaders Inter. With only two points separating them ahead of the kick-off, Massimiliano Allegri’s men had the perfect opportunity to leapfrog Nerazzurri at the summit, at least temporarily.
Winless in seven consecutive league matches ahead of this trip, Verona had only one idea on their minds. Marco Baroni’s lads were out to frustrate Juventus with a ‘bus’ in front of Lorenzo Montipo’s goal without any ambition to hurt Wojciech Szczesny on the opposite side of the pitch, especially in the first half.
Moise Kean, who scored winning goals in both last season’s Serie A encounters between Juventus and Verona, was at the thick of every action before halftime. The Italian forward scored a brilliant solo goal in the 12th minute. He picked the ball midway through the visitors’ half and breezed past two Verona men before unleashing an unstoppable effort into the bottom corner.
But his celebrations were short-lived as referee Ermano Feliciani disallowed the goal for the smallest offside you’ll see in Serie A this season. It wasn’t the end of the VAR drama tonight. Juventus continued to dominate the game but struggled to create many clear-cut chances. The next one came in the 19th minute.
Kean latched onto a precise set-piece delivery, forcing Montipo to make a fingertip save to deny his header. The ex-Everton striker had another opportunity to break the deadlock, only to see his first-time effort from close range go a whisker wide of the far post.
Verona’s only chance of the first half came on the stroke of halftime. Federico Bonazzoli reacted quickly inside the Juventus box, riffling a powerful first-time effort toward the bottom corner. Szczesny was up to the task, falling to the ground swiftly to parry the Italian’s shot away.
Despite weathering the storm in the first half, Verona had a long 45 minutes ahead of them. Eight minutes into the second half, Juventus found the back of the net again through Kean. The 23-year-old headed home an inch-perfect cross from the flank, but VAR denied him his first goal of the campaign again for a four in the build-up.
Allegri tried to reignite his side’s pursuit of a much-needed opener by introducing Cambiaso and Federico Chiesa midway through the second half. And the latter had the best chance to break down Verona’s defensive wall. He ran onto Weston McKennie’s cutback around the penalty spot but hit one of the visiting defenders on the line.
Time-wasting techniques and rock-solid defending helped Verona endure the siege down the final stretch. Or so they thought! Late substitute Arkadiusz Mlik got his towering header on the end of Adrien Rabiot’s cross in the 96th minute. The ball rattled off the post and fell nicely for Cambiaso who tapped it home to give Juventus a well-deserved victory.
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