Adrien Rabiot, Ronaldo and Dybala keep Juventus hopes for Champions League qualification alive.
Juventus kept their chances of finishing within the top four in Serie A alive with a 3-1 win over Sassuolo on Wednesday night.
Following their crushing loss to AC Milan in their last outing, and Napoli’s win on Tuesday, The Old Lady could not afford to drop further points. They were already trailing top-four by two points with two games to play, they went into the tie, knowing that any further dropping of points would effectively rule them out of the top-four race.
With that in mind, Pirlo restored veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to the starting XI alongside Danilo who missed their 3-0 loss to Milan.
In what appeared to be a stroke of fate, it was the returning goalkeeper who saved Juve’s blushes early in the game with a 16th-minute penalty save.
The hosts began the game the better of the two teams and could have been ahead in the 16th minute after Bonucci had fouled Raspadori in the box, but the veteran guessed the right way to deny Domenico Berardi a goal.
The penalty miss proved costly for the visitors as the visitors punished their lack of a clinical edge with two goals in the first half. First, Andrian Rabiot found the back of the net in the 28th minute with a neat run and a well-taken goal before Ronaldo added a second in the 45th minute. The goal was his 100th for Juventus in all competition, making him one of the most prolific strikers in the club’s history and keeping him on course for the Serie A golden boot this season.
Sassuolo, who had seen more of the ball and were the better team overall in the first half, came back in the second half determined to pull a goal back. And by the 59th minute, their effort was rewarded with a goal by Raspadori. The goal was the youngster’s sixth goal of the season and was enough to jerk Juve back to life after they had started the second half poorly.
But rather than be put off by the goal, Juventus rallied and by the 66th minute, Dybala restored their two-goal cushion with a lovely finish from a Juventus counter. The goal brought his tally for Juventus to 100 goals in all competitions.
Ronaldo tried to increase his side’s lead in the 78th minute, but his shot from the edge of the box hit the post. The game ended with neither team unable to add to their goal tally.
Sassuolo next two games see them play Parma and Lazio while Juventus have two must-win games coming up against champions Inter Milan and then Bologna.
So if Milan beat Cagliari on Sunday night, they are guaranteed to finish above Juventus no matter what because they have the H2H Atalanta can beat Milan final day to secure 2nd/3rd Which makes Napoli's results in the final 2 games key...provided Juventus beat Inter Saturday
