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After Tuesday’s heartbreaking elimination from the Champions League, there had been a complete lot of speak. Speak about the place the membership’s future was going, speak about what gamers may and won’t be in black and white stripes subsequent 12 months. Tons of speak about one participant particularly.
That man may’ve heard it.
Needing a optimistic outcome after the Porto debacle, Juventus flew to Sardinia to face a flagging Cagliari crew within the thick of the relegation combat and did the other of what they’d accomplished within the earlier week’s video games and began the sport out robust. After 5 days of listening to about his failures, Cristiano Ronaldo did what Cristiano Ronaldo do — rating objectives. The celebrity scored an ideal hat trick (proper foot, left foot, header) in little greater than half an hour, leaving the Bianconeri a snug result in see out the remainder of the best way. Whereas they dropped off within the second half — maybe a scarcity of focus, maybe the bodily toll of taking part in further time on Tuesday, maybe a little bit of each. Some comical defending on the hour mark gifted Cagliari an equalizer, and the Isolani almost made a recreation of it within the closing minutes, however Juve had been capable of get themselves over the road for a 3-1 win, a outcome that put them inside a single level of AC Milan for second place and saved them inside a Hail Mary of Inter on the prime of the desk.
Andrea Pirlo needed to make modifications after the bodily grind of Tuesday’s 120-minute marathon. He nonetheless caught to his 3-5-2/4-4-2 hybrid setup, nevertheless it was very weighted towards the latter on Sunday. Wojciech Szczesny took his traditional place in aim, with Juan Cuadrado, Matthijs de Ligt, Giorgio Chiellini, and Alex Sandro in entrance of him. Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Chiesa bracketed a midfield duo of Adrien Rabiot and Danilo, again within the midfield for a second straight recreation. Ronaldo joined Alvaro Morata up prime.
Cagliari had been within the thick of an in depth relegation combat, and had modified coach on the finish of February, changing Eusebio Di Francesco with Leonardo Semplici, who had turned in two wins and a draw since taking the job. He deployed a 3-5-2 anchored by the spectacular Alessio Cragno in aim. He was screened by Luca Ceppitelli, Diego Godin, and Juve loanee Daniele Rugani. Gabriele Zappa and Nahitan Nandez had been the wing-backs, flanking the mid of Radja Nainggolan, Alfred Duncan, and Razvan Marin. The distinctive Joao Pedro joined Giovanni Simeone within the strike pair.
The hosts very almost shot themselves within the foot early on when Duncan put a again move proper to Ronaldo, who discovered his method barred and shifted it to Kulusevski, whose shot was blocked. Regardless of the early misstep, Cagliari began seeing extra of the ball whereas Juventus acquired sloppy with their passing. At one level they linked collectively a protracted passing transfer, pulling the protection each which method and solely getting stopped with a determined stab away by the protection.
However mere seconds after that lengthy sequence appeared prefer it was a harbinger of one other actually tough begin, Juve nosed themselves in entrance. The breakthrough got here on a nook kick, which was delivered fantastically by Cuadrado to the ready run of Ronaldo, who had left anybody who had been attempting to mark him fully on him greedy for air as he went and buried a free header.
4 minutes later, Ronaldo was concerned in one other incident, this one somewhat scary. In extending to attempt to meet a Chiesa cross from the left, Ronaldo lifted his foot somewhat excessive and ended up catching Cragno, who had bravely jumped in to attempt to make a play on the supply. The Cagliari keeper took a glancing blow to the face earlier than a a lot heavier collision together with his head cracking into Ronaldo’s bottom. Cragno was down receiving consideration for near 4 minutes, whereas the Portuguese was proven a deserved yellow card (calls within the media for him to have been proven a straight pink had been, for my part, a little bit hysterical given the 50/50 nature of the play).
Cragno ultimately acquired up and continued, denying a shot from Morata that went proper at him earlier than arriving simply late when the Spaniard performed the ball in for Ronaldo, who had come streaking by means of the center with no defenders wherever near him. Referee Giampaolo Calvarese blew his whistle instantly, and Ronaldo picked himself as much as stand over the penalty. Ronaldo likes happening the center and put his shot barely to the left of that, nevertheless it nearly bit him this time when Cragno guessed proper and acquired a hand to the ball, however the ball was simply above him and highly effective, and it rippled the online to double Juve’s lead.
Ronaldo made it three seven minutes later. Chiesa took off on a counter after Morata headed a clearance into his path, then made a difficult move all the best way to the far nook of the field, getting it previous the outstretched foot of Nainggolan and to its vacation spot. Ronaldo minimize inside from the best and fired discovered the slightest little bit of house round Rugani, firing one other highly effective effort together with his left foot, off the hand of a diving Cragno and in.
Cagliari didn’t do something a lot to check Szczesny, whose solely actual enterprise within the first half was to smother a free kick from Duncan that eluded the heads of the lads within the field and headed towards the aim. However the Pole was a lot busier after the break. In an enormous gap, the house crew stepped their urgent up a notch and imposed themselves on the sport much more. Ten minutes into the half they compelled Szczesny into two saves in 60 seconds, the primary a comparatively simple save on a Duncan free kick, the second a tip over the bar on a vicious long-range drive from Marin.
Cagliari continued on the entrance foot, and picked up a aim simply after the hour mark due to some shambolic defending. Simeone discovered himself in a great quantity of house in the course of a triangle fashioned by Chiellini, Danilo, and Kulusevski. That rapidly changed into a silly quantity of house when Federico Bernardeschi — who had are available in for an injured Sandro late within the first half — let Zappa zip previous him, forcing Chiellini to attempt to shut him and leaving the striker much more open. Zappa slipped in a pullback into the best channel, and Simeone caught out a foot to fit it previous Szczesny for his first Serie A aim since October.
Now absolutely energized, the house crew tried to push for his or her second, and Pedro by some means averted getting booked when he threw himself to the bottom in search of a penalty within the sixty fifth minute. A couple of minutes later, Chiesa almost put the nail within the coffin when he lunged ahead to attempt to poke house a very nice ball from Cuadrado. Cagliari regarded for the second strike that will actually make it recreation on, however didn’t discover the goal once more till there have been lower than 10 minutes left, when Ragnar Klavan tamely tapped a nook to Szczesny. The closest they got here was six minute later, when substitute Gaston Pereiro flashed extensive on a cross-goal shot.
The capper almost got here on the final kick of the sport when Kulusevski put Ronaldo one-on-one with Cragno, however the keeper got here out and parried the shot over the bar to maintain the margin at 3-1.
WOJCHIECH SZCZESNY – 7. Made a few very nice saves within the second half and managed his penalty space very nicely. Might do nothing about Simeone’s aim after some ridiculous defending.
JUAN CUADRADO – 6.5. Hit a terrific nook to help for Ronaldo’s first aim, and made a pair of interceptions on the defensive finish.
MATTHIJS DE LIGT – 7. Six clearances and three interceptions made for a strong stat line, however the bits of his recreation which can be rather less tangible had been on full show. He learn Cagliari’s passing extremely nicely, stepping up out of protection and nipping a transfer within the bud greater than as soon as.
GIORGIO CHIELLINI – 7. Made 5 clearances and quite a few headed interventions on balls within the field. He handled a couple of back-post cross and held Joao Pedro with no shot.
ALEX SANDRO – 6. Didn’t have a lot likelihood to get into the sport earlier than he was compelled off with an harm simply after Ronaldo’s third aim. Hopefully his drawback isn’t a nasty one.
DEJAN KULUSEVSKI – 6. Led the crew in dribbles and made a pair of tackles in protection earlier than being pushed as much as the entrance two after Morata got here off. With the crew’s ways gearead a little bit extra towards the counter as we speak he was capable of play a little bit extra to his strengths.
DANILO – 6.5. Led the crew with three tackles and added in two interceptions, focusing extra on protection and holding play to let Rabiot be part of the assault. He’s positively efficient on this midfield position, which is likely one of the crazier developments this season.
ADRIEN RABIOT – 6.5. Shared the crew lead in tackles and accomplished 92.2 % of his passes, added his robust operating to the counterattack on quite a few events.
FEDERICO CHIESA – 7. Deserved a aim Sunday, however got here away with a extremely stunning help and 4 key passes — or as many as the complete remainder of the crew had. He’s in a wealthy vein of kind proper now and appears to have made the left aspect as a lot his personal as the best.
ALVARO MORATA – 5. This one wasn’t one in every of his higher days. Perhaps he was drained after Tuesday’s recreation or perhaps he’s nonetheless looking for his footing after his viral an infection, however he regarded alternatively indecisive and rushed, losing a few good alternatives.
CRISTIANO RONALDO – 8. Completely medical Sunday night time. He took benefit of each opening Cagliari afforded him — and a few of these openings had been inexplicably large given who Cagliari was coping with. He’s lastly damaged Pele’s document, though the Czechs are most likely nonetheless going to make a stink about how a lot they are saying Josef Bican had and we’ll by no means precisely hear the top of that individual debate.
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FEDERICO BERNARDESCHI – 6. He let Zappa previous him far too simply on the aim, which compelled Chiellini to shut him as an alternative of mark Simeone, however total had a great recreation, notching a key move and two interceptions whereas finishing 90 % of his passes.
LEONARDO BONUCCI – 6. Got here on to complete the sport within the again with Chiellini’s minutes being managed.
WESTON McKENNIE – 5.5. Needed to do plenty of defensive operating however didn’t fairly get himself into the sport shifting ahead.
ARTHUR – NR. Held the midfield down for the final 5 minutes or so of the sport.
GIANLUCA FRABOTTA – NR. Made a pleasant shot block in the course of a scrum late on as he was requested to nail down the protection on the flank.
Andrea Pirlo was clearly keen to let Cagliari play a little bit bit and hit them on the counter on this one. It’s one other instance of Pirlo’s willingness to tweak his core rules when he sees a weak point, as Cagliari had proven themselves to be susceptible to that type of play of their first three video games below Semplici, particularly final week in opposition to Sampdoria. It labored, too, as a result of two of Ronaldo’s three objectives got here after he and Chiesa got immense quantities of house in behind. It was additionally doubtless a concession to the crew’s vitality ranges after going further time on Tuesday.
With Rodrigo Bentancur nonetheless coping with COVID-19 and McKennie and Arthur nonetheless not one hundred pc match, the experiment of Danilo as a midfielder goes surprisingly nicely. It might nonetheless be good to see Nicolo Fagioli get in there every now and then to let him present what he can actually do, and I hoped/anticipating to see him in some unspecified time in the future within the second half, however Cagliari’s renewed initiative within the second half most likely made Pirlo go for expertise and the power to see the sport out. With Benvento subsequent, although, it could be a good thought to get him on the market a couple of extra occasions and see what he may be capable to provide sooner or later because the plans for subsequent season are made.
With the Napoli recreation now pushed again till April, Juve have an unimaginable luxurious on the subject of this season: a full week to relaxation between video games. They’ll face off in opposition to Benevento at house on Sunday earlier than the worldwide break kicks in, then kick off the season’s house stretch after the internationals with the Derby della Mole.
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