Juventus eked out a 2-0 home win over mid-table Udinese to close out Saturday’s Serie A action with another landslide victory. However, Paulo Dybala, who was on the scoresheet, has cast a shadow on his side’s success.
Coming into this matchday, Juventus succumbed to a heartbreaking 2-1 extra-time defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana. Head coach Massimiliano Allegri was keen to see a response from his players, and Paulo Dybala and Weston McKennie stepped up to the plate to ensure a vital three points at the Allianz Stadium.
The Argentine forward broke the deadlock 19 minutes into the game with a sublime finish after Arthur Melo and Moise Kean interchanged a couple of quick passes. Dybala’s strike marked the difference between the sides at half-time, with Udinese barely having any opportunity to restore parity.
However, Juventus returned to old habits early in the second half, dropping back to defend a slender lead. The Bianconeri were almost caught off-guard on a couple of occasions, but a lack of concentration let the Udinese forwards down one too many times.
And when the visitors failed to make their efforts count, Juventus rediscovered their attacking potential through McKennie. The USMNT star was left unmarked just outside the six-yard box, with second-half substitute Mattia De Sciglio delivering a pinpoint assist to put the game to bed.
Juventus have now won back-to-back Serie A matches following a 1-1 home draw with Napoli in their opening league outing of 2022, reducing the gap on fourth-placed Atalanta. However, with La Dea boasting two games in hand, there’s no room for complacency in the Turin camp.
The record-time Italian champions may not be playing the most eye-pleasing football, but they need results no matter how ugly it may look. Dybala, whose career at Juventus is at a crossroads, seems to be aware of that, as he urged his teammates to drop their habits of defending narrow leads and try to kill matches off earlier.
“I think we played well, we must try to be more consistent after scoring goals, as too often we score and then start to defend more, become afraid of attacking, and we can’t keep doing that,” he said, as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB.
“We are Juventus, of course, we are in the running for the Champions League spots and must try to win. We don’t play good football, that is not our strength, so we need to focus on hunger and trying to run harder than anyone else.“