Turin, March 4 (IANS) Juventus returned to winning ways as they secured 2-0 win in the Serie A match following the difficult Coppa Italia loss against Empoli last week.
The Bianconeri defeated Verona to win their fifth consecutive Serie A game and take themselves just six points from the top of the table and three behind Atalanta, their next opponent on Sunday at the Allianz Stadium.
Juventus started on the front foot and in just the 3rd minute Manuel Locatelli attempted a shot from outside the box, which went wide of the target. Verona responded in the 4th minute through Tomas Suslov, but Michele Di Gregorio was alert to the danger and dealt with the effort.
The first real chance for Juve came in the 13th minute when Andrea Cambiaso found Khephren Thuram in the box, who fired a first time effort goalwards, but Lorenzo Montipo denied him with an extraordinary save. Shortly after, in the 19th minute, Kenan Yildiz let off a strike from outside the box, and the ball inadvertently deflected into the path of Randal Kolo Muani, who was unable to convert.
In the 35th minute, Juventus did find the back of the net through Weston McKennie following a corner kick, but the goal was ruled out due to Lloyd Kelly’s challenge on Montipo. The Bianconeri continued to push and came close to taking the lead through Yildiz in the 40th minute, but Verona’s goalkeeper was once again on hand to make a great save.
Juve seemed to be in control of the game, but Verona caught everyone off guard on the counter and thought they had taken the lead with a spectacular finish by Suslov from 25 yards out. However, after a VAR review, the goal was disallowed out due to Davide Faraoni being in an offside position earlier in the move.
In the 49th minute Kolo Muani came close to scoring, but once again Montipo made a decisive save.
Juventus continued to press and, after several more chances, finally took the lead in the 72nd minute: Locatelli found Cambiaso with a precise pass, the full back delivered a perfect pass to Thuram, who beat Montipo with a powerful right-footed strike to break the deadlock and make it 1-0 to Juve.
In the 82nd minute, Locatelli was played through and went close to doubling the lead with a shot on the turn, only to again be denied by Montipo. Juventus continued to push to put the game to bed and in the 90th minute they made it 2-0: Montipo miscued his clearance, Alberto Costa intercepted and picked out Samuel Mbangula, whose clever touch found Teun Koopmeiners, who in turn coolly slotted the ball into the back of the net.
After four minutes of added time, the final whistle sounded with Juve walking away with a win.
–IANS
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