Juan Cuadrado scored an olimpico goal to put Juventus in front before Salvatore Sirigu's heroics kept Genoa in the game and then Paulo Dybala's goal sealed the victory.
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Juventus defeated Genoa 2-0 in the Serie A fixture in Turin on Sunday. Juan Cuadrado scored early in the match, directly from the corner kick before Paulo Dybala netted late in the game to seal all three points for the hosts. Juventus came into the match on the back of a 2-0 win over Salernitana and head coach Massimiliano Allegri made just one change to the winning team. Alvaro Morata came in for Moise Kean. Meanwhile Federico Chiesa and Weston McKennie were unavailable for the hosts due to injuries.
Inside the opening nine minutes, Juventus opened the scoring through Cuadrado’s olimpico goal. The Colombian’s corner-kick from the left flank, curled over the Genoa goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu and into the far top corner. It was the second olimpico goal scored in the Serie A this week after Inter Milan’s Hakan Calhanoglu had done it against Roma.
Juventus were clearly dominating early stages of the game as Federico Bernardeschi’s effort from the right side of the box was parried away by Sirigu at the near post. Few minutes later, Sirigu made a brilliant double save to keep out Matthijs de Ligt’s header from close range.
Sirigu was having a busy night and he was doing a superb job to keep Genoa in the game. On the stroke of half time, Dybala sent in a teasing low cross from the left flank. Morata got on the end of it but his attempt was once again saved by the 34-year-old custodian.
After the restart, Dybala’s left-foot curler went just over the crossbar. And then, Morata stole the ball from Mattia Bani inside the Genoa box before trying to curl it in from the left side. But Sirigu made a one-handed save to deny the Spanish striker.
Goran Pandev lost the ball in the middle of the park and that allowed the hosts to breakaway. Morata dribbled forward before squaring the ball for Dybala inside the box. However, Sirigu came out of his line to deny the Argentina international.
Juventus deservedly got their second of the night in the 82nd minute. Bernardeschi cut inside from the left before sliding the ball through for Dybala. The 28-year-old midfielder took a touch before drilling from a tight angle into the far bottom corner.
The win helped Juventus to fifth in the points table with 27 points from 16 games while Genoa are languishing at the 18th spot with just 10 points. Allegri’s side has now won four of their last five league games.
Juventus certainly created lots of opportunities with 12 shots on target but Sirigu had an excellent game to keep the scoreline down to just 2-0.
“I think we wanted to reinforce our position when it comes to percentage of scoring opportunities converted into goals! We’re the worst in Serie A, I think, so wanted to consolidate those statistics!” Allegri told DAZN.
“I enjoyed watching the team play this evening, as I have done in other games, even when we lost. We can only improve our effectiveness in front of goal, that’s for sure.”
There was an ugly touchline row with Morata, who was substituted after a yellow card for dissent, then continued to argue with his coach.
“He was booked, he was continuing to argue and so I preferred to take him off. It’s disappointing, as Alvaro had played well and so did the whole team,” explained Allegri
Allegri started with three left footed players- Dybala, Bernardeschi and Dejan Kulusevski- playing behind the central striker Morata.
“Bentancur and Locatelli bring quality and quantity. Manuel is more quality and Rodrigo more quantity, but he is improving in the way he plays the ball, he was accustomed to shorter passes, but we need everyone to be good at short and long passes to get the strikers moving.
“I think many of Dybala’s goals have been him coming to the edge of the box when the centre-forward lays it off, those are his characteristics.
“The three behind Morata have a certain degree of freedom, maybe less Kulusevski because he doesn’t want to cross over with Dybala. The important thing is that we had the right mentality throughout the 90 minutes.”
