The league has a new boss. Which is the same as always, having seen and considered the 4 consecutive championships collected in the last few years of absolute domination. It's still too early to tell if Juventus will celebrate again in May but in the meantime they have taken back the lead in the standings, the logical consequence of an incredible journey (15 victories in a row!) which culminated in the direct clash.
It wasn't a good game from the point of view of entertainment and a draw would probably have been the fairest result, but the big teams can also be seen in these situations and the god of football, once again, winked to the black and whites.
“We won an important match, a fundamental turning point for the championship even though the road is still very long – commented Allegri. – The boys were good at reading the game well and showing authority, spaces were few and winning wasn't easy at all”.
“The defeat is the result of an episode, after all football is like this – replied Sarri. – We played a great match from a defensive point of view, it's not for everyone to come to Turin and concede just one goal in the whole match. This application has taken something away from us in the offensive phase, but now we have to remain balanced: we were on an equal footing, let's think about this." Similar points of view are those of the two coaches, on the other hand the match was so balanced as to make too discordant analyzes difficult.
However, half a point more goes to Massimiliano Allegri, good at shuffling the cards on the eve ("we didn't know how they would play and this made things complicated for us" admitted Sarri), at choosing the right formation and getting all the substitutions right. Two decisive moves for the result: the entry of Zaza in place of Morata (58') and that of Alex Sandro for Dybala (86'). It was precisely the two substitutes who packaged the winning goal, with the Brazilian recovering the ball and the former Sassuolo throwing it in with a left footed shot from the edge of the area (88').
However, Albiol's deflection weighs heavily on the shot, decisive in sending Reina empty, who otherwise would have saved without too many problems. For the rest, little entertainment and a lot of tactics, confirming our own way of experiencing the big matches compared to the rest of Europe.
The English and Spanish will turn up their noses but a lot of organization has always been the best weapon we have, which is why, in one way or another, Italian football is still on track.
Allegri chose to gamble with a very compact 4-4-2, in which only Pogba was allowed to leave the position in pursuit of the classy coup, Sarri responded with the usual 4-3-3 made up of close triangulations and attention defensive. Balance reigned supreme for almost the entire game and this is where the plus point for the Juventus coach lies: he had thought exactly like that and the facts proved him right. In the long run, Insigne and Callejon, frightened by Cuadrado and Pogba, had to move their position back by at least 20 meters compared to usual, with the result that Higuain found himself wandering around the black and white shirts all alone (only one real chance for him, thwarted by a great closure by Bonucci).
Naples canceled in the offensive phase, Agreed, but this meant that Sarri's eleven defended perfectly, preventing Juve from having good times and bad times as usual. Up until the goal, the bianconeri had created only one chance with Dybala (a slightly high shot following an assist from Pogba), a pittance compared to what normally happens at the Stadium and beyond.
But just when the draw seemed to be a done deal, the decisive (and lucky) episode came to cancel the "no contest" and give Juve the lead in the standings. A far from decisive changing of the guard, God forbid, but the signal has arrived, and how if it has arrived. And Juventus, once again, has returned to command its own destiny.
