Juve and Lazio seize the opportunity, Napoli decidedly not. In the weekend that saw the slowdown of the Milanese, the Bianconeri and Biancocelesti knew how to take advantage of it, beating Bologna and Sassuolo and getting back in the running for their respective goals, unlike the Azzurri, clearly defeated in Verona and forced to ask themselves about the reasons for a such a difficult time.
In the most delicate week, in short, Juventus has found itself, first winning the Super cup and then taking advantage of the chance to shorten the championship. "It was important to give intensity and we did it well especially in the first half, where we had many opportunities to end it - commented satisfied by Pirlo – It was also important to win the Super Cup and demonstrate that we are not the ones from San Siro, we regrouped, analyzed the mistakes and went back to work with great enthusiasm. We have to understand that we are a strong team, it all depends on us…”.
Scoring 36 points, with the possibility of reaching 39 after the recovery with Napoli (whose date, we repeat, is not yet known), was essential to relaunch in terms of the Scudetto, in the light of Milan's defeat and the draw Inter. The bianconeri succeeded despite a good Bologna, capable of creating more than one headache for Szczesny, and a subdued Ronaldo, as indeed for some time now.
He thought about putting everything downhill Arthur, who made it 1-0 with a shot clearly deflected by Schouten (15'), after which it was easier to slip into the spaces inevitably left by the rossoblu. To tell the truth, however, for the doubling it took a set piece, to be precise a corner of Cuadrado on which McKennie he pounced with strength and precision, beating Skorupski for the second time. Ronaldo? He was seen little and when he did he made a mistake, like in the final, when he threw the ball at the goalkeeper to make it 3-0.
Having these problems, Gattuso must have thought in the belly of the Bentegodi, where his Napoli has remedied a resounding defeat, the sixth of the first leg. Too many for a team aiming for the top, if we add Wednesday's knockout in the Super Cup to this, we served a far from exciting first part of the season, in which ups and downs followed one another dangerously. “When you don't win, the responsibility is always mine, I make the choices and I put the team on the field – explained amaro Gattuso – I'm sorry about how it went, the match plan had been prepared so well that in the first half we played as we wanted, we could even have ended the game. In the second, however, we let ourselves be eaten, we distorted ourselves and they, if you put it on a physical level, hurt you".
To tell the truth, the difficulties were also seen in the first part, because after the good half hour in which the Azzurri had found the lightning goal with Lozano (1') and almost doubled with Demme, Verona resumed the match, equalizing with Dimarco (34') and even risking going up 2-1. The usual energy of the Gialloblù, splendidly fielded by Juric, combined with the bad day of some key Azzurri points (above all Insigne, not surprisingly replaced in the 60th minute), however only postponed the Veronese overtaking, which took place in the 62nd minute thanks to the diagonal of Barak. From then on there was only one team on the pitch, with Hellas legitimizing a well-deserved victory with Zaccagni (79'), ironically Napoli's target on the transfer market.
The Azzurri thus close the first leg with 34 points, the same as the Inzaghi's Lazio, yesterday victorious over Sassuolo and returned to all intents and purposes in the running for the Champions League. A 2-1 comeback that of the biancocelesti, suffered at times also due to the tiredness of the Cup, but deserved: finding the strength to overturn the Emilians, who took the lead after just 6' with Caputo, was not easy and instead they are there succeeded with patience and precision, waiting for the right moments to sink the decisive blows. One found it Milinkovic-Savic with an imperious header (25'), the other scored his majesty Property (71'), at the 13th center of this umpteenth great season.
"It was the most complicated exam, Sassuolo plays football well, we had just played on Thursday evening, it was difficult but the team played a great match – he exulted Inzaghi – We are happy, this is a very difficult championship but we want to continue like this. We were in a great emergency, but I have some extraordinary guys who are ready for anything: now we will try to do our best by going to Bergamo twice". One in the Coppa Italia (Wednesday at 17.30pm), the other in the league (Sunday at 15pm), for yet another hot week of this intense season like never before.
