La Juve finds his smile again. The victory over Fiorentina, combined with the results of their pursuers, means that the Bianconeri put a little more third place is safe, therefore that Champions League placement is fundamental for future programs. It was clear that it could be a positive Sunday already in the afternoon, first with the Bologna draw in Frosinone (0-0), then with the Atalanta's defeat in Cagliari (2-1), but confirmation came in the evening thanks to the 1-0 against the Viola scored by the "usual" Cats, the man of the short nose par excellence. The 31st matchday, awaiting today's postponement between Udinese and Inter, thus marks a point in favor of Allegri, without forgetting Pioli, De Rossi and... Calzona, the other winner on Sunday thanks to the 4-2 in Monza.
Juventus – Fiorentina 1-0, a goal from Gatti allows the Lady to extend their lead in the standings
It was a two-sided match at the Stadium, with an excellent Juventus in the first half and an attacking Fiorentina in the second. The winner was whoever was able to materialize the most, therefore Allegri's team, who returned cynical and ruthless for one night. The match winner was Gatti, just as happened many times in the first round: that was a Lady who cherished dreams of glory, this one is decidedly more humble and clinging to the Champions League objective, the only one capable of avoiding the word "failure". Never like this time, however, did winning count and the Bianconeri succeeded with a very concrete performance, even if the skill of Szczesny, decisive in saving a Nico Gonzalez shot destined for the top corner. It must be said that the result of the first half was even close for Juve, given that in addition to the Gatti's goal (21') we must point out a crossbar from Federico himself, a post from Bremer (which gave rise to the aforementioned 1-0) and well three goals disallowed for offside (two from Vlahovic, one from McKennie). A larger advantage, in short, would have been in the natural order of things, but instead the match remained in the balance and Fiorentina, also thanks to the Italian's substitutions (Maxime Lopez above all), found courage and geometry, forcing Juve to a decidedly less serene second half.
Allegri's team almost completely surrendered ball possession (75% for the Viola, which even becomes 84 considering only the second half), risking big on two occasions: on the first by Nico Gonzalez Szczesny was phenomenal, while the second by Beltran crashed into Nzola, author, despite himself, of a save in the wrong door.
Allegri: “Three important points, even if in the end we risked drawing”
"We we work every day to improve, then there are the moments – theAllegri's analysis -. It went well in the second half in some situations, in the first it went badly in others. In the end we risked equalizing and missed some important restarts, but I can't blame the boys for anything. We are having a good championship, we are doing everything we can to try to improve, these three points are important. How do I explain the decline in the second half? In football, two teams take the field, with two different shirts, us with the black and white and Fiorentina with the purple, I think it's a simple game. We too would like to keep the ball for 90 minutes and shoot 30 times on target, not suffer a shot on target, this would be very nice, but I think it's very imaginative, not even dreams can come true. I train these amazing kids for reach the Champions League goal, we need to remain calm after a bad period in which we suffered a setback after leaving Inter. Maybe we scored too many points before and not enough after, we need to work and the boys have scored two good victories in the last few games."
Bologna slows down in Frosinone, Atalanta collapses in Cagliari, Napoli conquers Monza
The rest of Sunday, as mentioned at the beginning, offered twists both in terms of Europe and salvation, especially since there were two cross-matches, both the prerogative of the underdogs. The Frosinone stopped the very fast Bologna at 0-0, at the end of a much more balanced match than expected, even if the rossoblu had the winning ball a few seconds from the end with ndoye, walled in by a large reflection of Turati.
The biggest twist, however, came from Cagliari, where Ranieri's rossoblu even managed to beat Atalanta. For the Bergamo team this is the second consecutive defeat after that of Florence in the Italian Cup, moreover after having taken the lead with Chess (13'). The 1-0 seemed to have put the match on hold, but instead the Sardinians did not give up and after finding the equalizer close to half-time with Augello (42'), they managed to win thanks to Viola (88'): the final 2-1 changes the balance of the race for salvation (now Cagliari has risen to 13th place, albeit with only 4 points ahead of third-last Frosinone), as well as that of the Champions League, given that the Dea is even 8 behind fourth-placed Bologna and 5 behind Roma (however, the recovery against Fiorentina is still missing).
Instead, one lights up again little flame of hope for Napoli, capable of conquering Monza with a pyrotechnic 4-2. Anything really happened at the Brianteo: the hosts took the lead with Djuric (9'), after which they were literally overwhelmed by author's trio Osimhen-Politano-Zielinski, which turned everything around in just 6 minutes. Colpani's goal (62') kept Brianza's ambitions alive, but Raspadori (68') took care of extinguishing them with the final 2-4 point, absolutely decisive for Calzona's European hopes.
Udinese – Inter (20.45pm, Dazn and Sky)
The league leaders are still missing from the roll call for this 31st matchday Inter, on stage in Udine in today's postponement. The Nerazzurri now see the outlines of the title and they want to shorten the time as much as possible, both for the understandable desire to celebrate and for an inevitable form of superstition: everyone, in fact, takes the tricolor as a given and Inzaghi can't wait to touch it first hand. Then there is the chance to win it in the derby against Milan, moreover in front of over 60 thousand Rossoneri fans, which is more exciting than they want to admit at the Nerazzurri. To make the hypothesis concrete, however, we need to get full spoils against Udinese and Cagliari, which is certainly possible, but not entirely obvious. Both the Friulians and the Sardinians, in fact, are stuck in the race for salvation, so they will sell their lives dearly, assuming it is enough to stop the Nerazzurri army. Inzaghi's team, up to now, has not experienced any drops in tension of any kind, proving to be a true example of continuity: the absolute record by 102 points (Conte's Juve in 2013/14), not surprisingly, can still be beaten, which says a lot about the extraordinary ride of this Inter. But now the final efforts are needed, starting with Udine: a historically complicated field, as demonstrated by last year's defeat (3-1) which put Inzaghi in serious difficulty. Other times, there's no denying it, given that the coach is now swimming in calmer waters than ever and is close to being renewed until 2027, all with the second star sewn on his chest.
Udinese – Inter, the probable lineups
Udinese (3-5-2): Okoye; Ferreira, Bijol, Perez; Pereyra, Samardzic, Walace, Lovric, Kamara; Thauvin, Success
Coach: Cioffi
Disqualified: Lucca
Unavailable: Deulofeu, Ebosse, Brenner
Inter Milan (3-5-2): Summer; Pavard, Acerbi, Carlos Augusto; Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Lautaro, Thuram
Coach: Inzaghi
Disqualified: nobody
Unavailable: Cuadrado, De Vrij, Bastoni
