Joao Pedro had given Cagliari a surprise lead early in the match but goals from De Ligt and Vlahovic helped the Bianconeri take all three points.
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Juventus beat Cagliari 2-1 in the Serie A fixture at Sardegna Arena on Saturday night. Joao Pedro had given Cagliari a surprise lead early in the match but goals from Matthijs De Ligt and Dusan Vlahovic helped the Bianconeri take all three points. Both sides came into the contest low on confidence as Juventus were defeated by Inter and the Sardinians had lost four on the bounce and sat just above the relegation zone.
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HT | Il primo tempo si chiude in parità. Vantaggio sardo con Joao Pedro, pari di @mdeligt_04.#CagliariJuve [1-1] #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/DVp1xC8Z5j
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) April 9, 2022
The home side took the lead against the run of play on 10 minutes. Razvan Maris dispossessed Paulo Dybala on the half way line and raced forward before finding Pedro just inside the box. The 30-year-old Italian striker took one touch and then deposited the ball into the far top corner with a fine right-footed strike.
Luca Pellegrini thought he had equalised when his effort deflected off Adrien Rabiot and went into the net on 23 minutes. But, it was disallowed after VAR intervention because Rabiot deflected it off his elbow.
The visitors were pushing hard for the equaliser as Dybala’s free-kick skimmed the near top post before the Argentine’s volley went straight to Cragno and Rabiot fired over from a promising position.
Juan Cuadrado tested Cragno from distance before leveling the score from the resulting corner on the stroke of half-time. Cuadrado easily went past his marker on the left flank and delivered a floating ball into the far post for De Ligt to head home past Cragno into the back of the net.
The visitors had another goal disallowed within two minutes of the restart, as Giorgio Chiellini was off-side when redirecting a scuffed shot. Few minutes later, Chiellini’s superb long pass found Dybala’s run inside the box, but the Argentine’s volley went over the bar.
Juventus introduced Federico Bernardeschi and shifted to a 4-2-3-1 formation. Cuadrado’s shot flashed across the face of goal and Vlahovic tested Cragno after squirming between defenders.
Juventus deservedly got the winner on 75 minutes when Vlahovic ran onto Dybala’s through ball, Giorgio Altare’s sliding tackle ended up almost kicking it onto Vlahovic’s boot to toe-poke in from close range. It was the Serbian international’s 22nd Serie A goal of the season.
The win helped Massimiliano Allegri’s side to 62 points from 32 games at the fourth spot, five points adrift of the league leaders AC Milan. Meanwhile Cagliari remained at the 17th spot with 25 points from 32 games, just three points away from the drop zone.
