Juventus made a winning start in Serie A 2020-21 campaign at Juventus stadium today, as home team beat Sampdoria 3-0.
Sweden winger Dejan Kulusevski, American midfielder Weston McKennie and Gianluca Frabotta, an Italian midfielder from Juventus academy debuted together under debutant manager Andrea Pirlo.
It’s refreshing to watch Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci starting together in defence, but Paulo Dybala was absent from first eleven as well as reserve bench.
Juventus did not have to wait for long as Kulusevski followed up a loose ball to place it perfectly at right corner of Sampdoria goalkeeper Emil Audero to provide home team 1-0 lead.
Cristiano Ronaldo could have hit back of the net a number of times, but he had to be pleased with one at the very end of regular time. He converted a perfect pass from Aaron Ramsey. Before he had hit the crossbar once and narrowly missed few, which he generally does not miss.
Ten minutes to the regular time, Bonucci scored the second goal for Juve, who are aiming tenth successive Serie A title.
The match was attended by 1000 odd spectators, as Italian government allowed thousand fans for a Serie A match after Coronavirus pandemic restricted the football matches behind-closed-door since march this year.
It was a great debut for the manager as well as three young players. The players did not look awkward and much of the credit should be going to first time manager Pirlo.
The young manager, who recently obtained Italian coaching qualification with near-perfect score, made Juventus look a well-oiled machine. He kept faith with the young brigade, unlike Maurizio Sarri, who sold Moise Kean to Everton, despite Kean’s superlative fill-in performance during previous season.
