Juventus vs Sassuolo 1-2: Late Lopez Winner Secures Historic Win for Neroverdi

A late, late winner from 23-year-old Maxime Lopez saw Sassuolo register their very first win over Juventus in Turin.

Massimiliano Allegri’s side started the game strongly but their opponents fought hard and opened the scoring just before half-time thanks to Davide Frattesi. In the second half, Juve were hungry for an equalizer and found it thanks to Weston McKennie, who netted his first goal of the season.

It looked like the Bianconeri would seal the game as they seemed to be more attacking while Sassuolo’s substitutions were focused on keeping a strong defensive shape. However, Alessio Dionisi’s broke on the counter-attack and Lopez found the winner.

The scorers and Domenico Berardi played a crucial role in Sassuolo’s and so did their goalkeeper Andrea Consigli, who made some important saves throughout the game

This defeat is a major blow for Juventus and their chances of reducing the gap between them and the top spot.

Allegri made plenty of changes from the 1-1 draw against Inter with Mattia Perin starting in goal ahead of Wojciech Szczesny. In defense, Matthijs de Ligt and Mattia de Sciglio came in, replacing Giorgio Chiellini and Alex Sandro respectively.

Federico Chiesa was back in the lineup with Juan Cuadrado on the bench while Adrien Rabiot was playing his first match in over three weeks after recovering from coronavirus. With Federico Bernardeschi missing the fixture, McKennie was starting on the left midfield position.

For the first time in a month, Juventus were starting with Paulo Dybala and Alvaro Morata.

Sassuolo made four changes to the team that won 3-1 against Venezia with Turkish duo Mert Muldur and Kaan Ayhan starting in place of Jeremy Toljan and Vlad Chiriches respectively. Gregoire Defrel replaced Gianluca Scamacca upfront while Hamed Traore was in the lineup due to Filip Duricic’s injury.

Juventus were on the attack from the very first minute with Morata and Chiesa troubling the Sassuolo backline. However, they were forced to make an early substitution after Mattia de Sciglio got injured.

Sassuolo were far from willing to sit back and they started to attack with their star Berardi shooting on goal from distance. However, Mattia Perin made a spectacular save to deny the 27-year-old.

Shortly after, Juve had a good scoring chance when Leonardo Bonucci’s delivery found Dybala who headed towards Morata. However, Consigli was there to deny him.

Inn the 37th minute, Dybala had a glorious chance to open the scoring for Juventus but his powerful left-footed shot hit the post. The Bianconeri continued to attack but the Sassuolo backline was vigilant.

Surprisingly, it was the Neroverdi who opened the scoring thanks to Frattesi, who made a late run forward and slotted the ball past Perin after receiving a pass from Defrel. 

Juve made one change at the interval with Cuadrado coming on for Rabiot. The Bianconeri were hell-bent on getting an equalizer and created a number of chances with Dybala and Chiesa coming close to scoring. Just after the hour-mark, Morata was subbed off and in came young Kaio Jorge.

Sassuolo had a chance to go 2-0 up when substitute Scamacca took a shot at goal but it went straight towards Perin. 

Juventus eventually found their equalizer when McKennie headed in from Dybala’s free-kick. The Bianconeri made a couple more changes in the 80th minute with Arthur and Dejan Kulusevski coming on for Danilo and Manuel Locatelli respectively. Juve kept attacking in search of a winner but Sassuolo’s backline was compact enough to prevent them from doing so.

The Neroverdi were looking to counter and did so during the dying minutes with Berardi’s brilliant pass finding Lopez, who found the net to win the match for his team.

Next up for the Bianconeri is an away game against Verona and they will be determined to secure all three points.

 

MATCH SCORECARD

October 27, 2021 – Serie A 2021-2022 Round 10
JUVENTUS – SASSUOLO 1-2

SCORERS: 44′ Frattesi (S), 76′ McKennie (J), 95′ M. Lopez (S)