Juventus produced an all-around display to hammer Genoa.
Juventus have comfortably defeated Genoa 3-1 to close the gap with second-placed AC Milan.
The Bianconeri got off to a flying start as Dejan Kulusevski netted a fantastic left-footed strike inside four minutes.
Juve quickly caught the visitors on the break, with Federico Chiesa forcing a save from Mattia Perin before Alvaro Morata scored an easy goal on the rebound to make it 2-0.
Genoa looked more dangerous when they halved the deficit after the break with the help of Scamacca.
However, Juve put the game beyond Genoa’s reach after substitute Weston McKennie made an immediate impact by scoring the third and final goal of the game. The USMNT youngster has been impressive in his debut season at Turin, racking up 6 goals and 2 assists.
It was a frustrating day for Cristiano Ronaldo as he neither scored nor assisted but it didn’t affect the result on the whole.
Juventus had been subject to much criticism after a defeat and draw against Benevento and Torino, which saw them lose their firm in the Scudetto race. But their back to back wins against Napoli and Genoa have helped them move within one point of second-place AC Milan.
Statistics and Reactions – Juventus vs Genoa
Andrea Pirlo must have had a huge sigh of relief after being at the receiving end over the last two months, starting from the UCL elimination.
The Italian gaffer said: We had the right attitude at the start, it all seemed easy, then we allowed a chance at the end of the first half due to a lack of concentration.
“It’s happened before that we concede goals either side of the half and it almost happened again. We came out wanting to take the initiative, but we went too deep, ran a few risks and didn’t take the chances that would’ve allowed us to be a bit more relaxed.”
Andrea Pirlo on Cristiano Ronaldo throwing his jersey away: “It’s normal he wanted to score a goal, especially when the game was getting complicated, as he is a champion and always wants to make his mark."
Ronaldo tossed his shirt to a ball boy following the match today
@romeoagresti: Clarification Ronaldo did not throw any jersey on the ground at the end of the match. A ball boy asked him for his shirt, he took it off and threw it at him. Then, that he played badly puffing here and there, is another matter. That’s end of that. Forza Juve
Line-ups
Juventus
Wojciech Szczesny, Giorgio Chiellini, Matthijs de Ligt, Danilo, Juan Cuadrado (Alex Sandro), Adrien Rabiot (Aaron Ramsey), Rodrigo Bentancur, Federico Chiesa (Arthur), Dejan Kulusevski (Weston McKennie), Cristiano Ronaldo, Álvaro Morata (Paulo Dybala).
Substitutes
Gianluigi Buffon, Carlo Pinsoglio, Gianluca Frabotta, Merih Demiral, Alessandro Di Pardo, Nicolo Fagioli, Radu Dragusin.
Genoa
Mattia Perin, Ivan Radovanovic, Domenico Criscito, Andrea Masiello, Nicolo Rovella (Miha Zajc), Valon Behrami (Marko Pjaca), Milan Badelj, Davide Zappacosta, Davide Biraschi (Paolo Ghiglione), Goran Pandev (Eldor Shomurodov), Gianluca Scamacca (Filippo Melegoni).
Substitutes
Cristián Zapata, Federico Marchetti, Mattia Destro, Edoardo Goldaniga, Jerome Onguene, Alberto Paleari.
