Juventus temporarily rises to second place, beating host Udinese 1-0, in the seventeenth stage of the Italian football championship.
Sharjah 24 – Asad Khalil:
Juventus temporarily move up to second place, after snatching a tiring 1-0 victory over host Udinese, in the seventeenth stage of the Italian soccer championship.
The two sides observed a minute’s silence before the match following the death of former Juventus captain Gianluca Vialli, who played for the Bianconeri between 1992 and 1996 and led them to their last European title a quarter of a century ago.
Juventus owes the victory to its Brazilian captain Danilo, author of a fatal goal, the first this season, which gave coach Massimiliano Allegri’s team the eighth consecutive victory in “Serie A”.
And the team of the “Old Lady” raises the score to 37 points, one point ahead of Milan III, which receives Roma at the San Siro on Sunday.
While he reduces the gap with leaders Napoli to four points, who will visit Sampdoria during the day.
Udinese’s balance, which was just around the corner from grabbing a precious point at the Juventus stronghold, froze at 25 points in eighth place.
Even Udinese, absent from the Spaniard Gerard Deulofeu, failed to win the ninth consecutive match.
Juventus’ victory came at the best moment, less than a week before the imminent fiery clash against Napoli at the latter’s stadium.
Juventus struggled to come up with the three points and continue their winning streak, which began on 15 October 2022, while Udinese were the better team in the first half, with considerable caution in the hosts’ performance.
It is the eighth consecutive victory for Juventus, in a series in which they have not conceded a goal.
However, the first half didn’t see many chances from either side, ending in a goalless draw.
Allegri made a series of changes a quarter of an hour after the start of the second half, pushing Argentina’s World Cup winner Leandro Paredes, Federico Chiesa and Poland’s Arcadius Milik, amid Juventus’ complete ball domination, which amounted to 75%.
After a vigorous chase by the hosts, they manage to break through the Udinese defense and snatch the lead through Danilo, after an elaborate pass from substitute Keiza, who receives a long chest throw from the other substitute Paredes, transforming him into the Brazilian unmarked and easily inserting it into the network.
Saturday’s matches will end with the Inter IV match against Monza.
Decisive victory for Fiorentina:
Fiorentina scored in a fatal victory over their hosts Sassuolo, 2-1.
At the Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence, and while the match was heading towards a positive draw after Ricardo Saponara had given Fiontina the lead, then Domenico Berardi equalized for Sassuolo (57′ from a penalty), the host grabbed victory thanks to the Spaniard Nico Gonzalez from a penalty kick.
Gonzalez managed to score his first goal after several months out of the stadiums, and appears to be feeling the same after scoring the penalty after a hand ball inside the box on Sassuolo’s Brazilian Rowan Tresoldi.
Fiorentina temporarily climbs to ninth place with 23 points, while Sassuolo is sixteenth with 16 points.
Fiorentina picked up their first win after two games, after drawing 1-1 against Monza in the last round and losing to AC Milan in the 15th round, while Sassuolo went winless for the sixth consecutive match.
