Ascent tests. Juventus and Lazio do their duty with Genoa and Sampdoria, obtaining three fundamental points in the race for Europe, but above all a good injection of self-esteem, equally important for the continuation of the season. For both, the Champions League zone remains quite far away, also in light of what the four players are doing up front, but yesterday's victory was really the only possible result, especially for the Bianconeri, who certainly couldn't fail against an all-time low Genoa . Shevchenko's team, already struggling regardless, showed up in Turin without its most representative men such as Destro, Caicedo, Criscito and Rovella, which made them the perfect sparring partner to heal the Lady's sore score.
Operation, to tell the truth, only partially successful, because if victory has never been seriously in question, the gap has long been minimal. Close 2-0 a match dominated from start to finish, with total domination certified by stats (27 overall shots to 0!), once again demonstrates how Juve have an offensive problem, as can be seen from the only 22 goals scored in 16 games. In short, woe to fancy flights after these three points, but in the meantime they have arrived for the second consecutive time and this, in a difficult season for a thousand reasons, is already good news.
The challenge was aimed right from the start, because the bianconeri managed to find the balance-breaking goal after just 9' thanks to Cuadrado, author of a splendid billiard shot directly from a corner kick. A great individual play, perfect for putting the match downhill against a Genoa totally incapable of creating even a single chance, but not the start of a goal, because up front there is a problem of concreteness and lucidity. The emblem is Alvaro Morata, again dry after Salerno's goal despite several dangerous situations, some saved by Sirigu, others badly wasted.
Allegri would have liked to leave him on the pitch until the end to help him break free, but the yellow card he received in the 72nd minute for protesting led him to remove it and insert Kean (who came on, moreover, with an irritating attitude): the Spaniard didn't take it well and the two had a tough spat in favor of the camera. The errors sills, however, have been made by many, from De Ligt to Kulusevski, passing through Bernardeschi and Dybala who however, in the 82nd minute, redeemed himself with a nice left footed shot to make it 2-0.
“We need to improve in the scoring phase, between opportunities created and exploited we have worsened our statistics – he admitted Allegri in the press conference – I'm happy with how we played and I had fun, like in Salerno. In the end, the results count, but seeing that we miss so many goals, it means that we can only improve. Morata? I hadn't decided to replace him, it's just that then he got the yellow card, he kept protesting, so at that moment I preferred to take him off, absolutely nothing happened. On the contrary, I'm sorry because in any case Alvaro played a good game technically, even if he didn't manage to score ”.
He found three instead there Lazio, capable of conquering the other side of Genoa, or that of the Sampdoria Sampdoria, with a performance that was finally convincing. Sarri needed it like air, because the defeats against Juve and Naples and the daring draw with Udinese, in addition to worsening the standings, had cast many shadows on his project.
We needed a positive response from the team and the coach got it, also thanks to strong but probably necessary choices: above all the change in goal between Reina and Strakosha, with the Albanian as the great protagonist. On the shields, then, the usual Property, author of a brace between 17' and 37' e Milinkovic-Savic, who, however, tarnished the good performance (goal in the 7th minute and assist for Ciro) by getting expelled for protests that were as useless as they were harmful, and moreover with the match essentially closed.
Sarri will thus have to give up on him for next Sunday's match against Sassuolo and perhaps even on Immobile himself, who went out at half-time with a knee problem. However, the numerical inferiority did not affect the match, because Sampdoria, author of a terrible first half, woke up too late, finding the 1-3 goal only in the 89th minute with Seagulls: D'Aversa, in the sights of critics and fans, will play the bench in the derby against Genoa next Friday, with Stankovic ready to take over.
Returning to Lazio, however, we can say that the reaction has been very positive, even if, before getting excited, further confirmations will be needed. “There are moments in which the team does the things that are asked of it and races in which it goes back – the words of the blue and white coach - Depends on what? From the fact that we never train, I mostly work with footage, now I'm a television director. Milinkovic? He lost his patience, just like the referee: he could have avoided throwing him out. Still? We have to understand if he has only taken a blow or has suffered a strain, if it is a blow he could recover very quickly ”. At Lazio everyone wishes it, because the top scorer in the league (13 goals like Vlahovic) is absolutely essential.
