CROTONE, ITALY - OCTOBER 17: Alvaro Morata of Juventus celebrates after scoring his team's first goal with teammate Manolo Portanova during the Serie A match between FC Crotone and Juventus at Stadio Comunale Ezio Scida on October 17, 2020 in Crotone, Italy. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)

VAR Show as 10-Man Juventus Drop Points at Crotone

Crotone, Italian Football, Juventus, Serie A, Serie A 2020-2021 2 comments

 

On paper, this fixture looked to only have one outcome. Crotone went into this one having lost all three of their Serie A openers after their promotion from Serie B, whilst Italian champions Juventus had taken seven points from their first three league games of the season.

Though it was the underdogs Crotone who took the lead. Leonardo Bonucci gave away a contested penalty shortly after the ten-minute mark, which Simy stepped up and scored past the 42-year-old Gianluigi Buffon.

Andrea Pirlo is actually a year younger than Buffon, and he had to make do without Cristiano Ronaldo tonight after his positive coronavirus test earlier in the week.

But Juve grew into the first-half and had their equaliser on the 20-minute mark. Federico Chiesa on his Juventus debut found Alvaro Morata with a fine cross, which the Spaniard nodded home for his first goal since resigning with the club.

Little happened up until the half-time whistle when Morata turned provider for the youngster Manolo Portanova, whose shot was blocked before it reached its destination.

The second-half brought controversy. Chiesa would see red on the hour-mark and to the disgust of Juve fans who felt the straight red was unnecessary for a late tackle, and questioned why VAR wasn’t conferred for the decision.

Juve supporters would’ve been even more angered 15 minutes later when Morata found the net for Juve despite their man disadvantage, only for VAR to rule it out, and see Juve eventually settle for a point.

Crotone put up a good performance and ended the game with a shot more on goal than Juventus and could’ve pinched the win but for the experience of Juve showing through. Pirlo on the other hand will be a frustrated man tonight, with both VAR and his side who failed to create enough goal-scoring opportunities.

 

 

MATCH REPORT

October 17, 2020 – Serie A 2020-2021 Round 4
CROTONE-JUVENTUS 1-1

SCORERS: 12′ Simy (C, pen.), 21′ Morata (J)

CROTONE (3-5-2): Cordaz; Magallàn, Marrone, Luperto (83′ Golemic); Pereira (73′ Rispoli), Molina (88′ Petriccione), Cigarini, Vulic (74′ Siligardi), Reca; Messias, Simy (Festa, Crespi, Crociata, Cuomo, Henrique, Rojas) Coach: Stroppa
JUVENTUS (3-4-2-1): Buffon; Danilo, Bonucci, Demiral; Chiesa, Bentancur, Arthur (70′ Rabiot), Frabotta; Kulusevski (69′ Bernardeschi); Portanova (56′ Cuadrado), Morata (Szczesny, Pinsoglio, Chiellini, Dybala, Peeters, Rafia, Vrioni) Coach: Pirlo

REFEREE: Mr. Fourneau from Rome
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Cigarini, Reca, Magallàn (C), Bonucci, Portanova, Kulusevski (J); Red Card: Chiesa (J); Extra Time: 1st Half 0′, 2nd Half 7′

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