It’s unfathomable how Juventus endured a siege at the Artemio Franchi to topple Fiorentina 1-0 in Sunday’s mouth-watering Serie A clash. Wojciech Szczesny’s heroics between the sticks and the team’s collective effort helped Bianconeri survive 25 attempts on goal and walk away with a seventh clean sheet in 11 league matches this season.
Despite having just 30% of the ball and barely crafting any dangerous move on the Fiorentina half, other than Fabio Miretti’s 10th-minute deadlock-breaker, Juventus scooped up their first league victory in Tuscany in almost five years. Most of the credit goes to their stubborn defense.
Juventus completely relinquished their attacking aspirations since going up in the early stages. However, they forged a wall in front of Szczesny’s goal to eke out another classic ‘Massimiliano Allegri’ win. Bianconeri ‘parked the bus’ and successfully managed to frustrate Fiorentina for the rest of the game to make it four league wins on the trot.
While making fans want to tear their hair out, Allegri maintains he is proud of his side’s performance.
“Fiorentina are always complicated to play against, as they attack, they move around, but the lads put in a great performance,” the Juventus manager told DAZN, as quoted by TMW. “We scored the goal, suffered more in the first half, in the second Szczesny didn’t have to make a single save, despite all the crosses.“
Juventus return to action next weekend with a relatively straightforward home task against promoted Cagliari. Though it may look like another day in the office, at least on paper, the Sardinians’ recent upturn in form means Allegri’s men can ill-afford to take this fixture lightly.
 |
Follow us on Google News for more updates on Serie A and Italian football |