Juventus ended the year on a positive note by beating relegation-threatened Cagliari 2-0 on Tuesday to close the gap to the top four in Serie A.
Moise Kean and Federico Bernardeschi scored as Juventus moved to within four points of Atalanta, which was surprisingly held to a 0-0 draw at struggling Genoa.
Atalanta was in fourth place and the final Champions League qualifying berth.
Juventus had struggled at the start of the season but things were starting to click under returning coach Massimiliano Allegri and the Bianconeri came into the match having won five of its past six matches, drawing the other.
It almost took an early lead but Kean headed Juan Cuadrado’s cross off the far post.
He did better five minutes from halftime when he headed in Bernardeschi’s cross following a superb run from the winger.
And Bernardeschi got on the scoresheet himself seven minutes from time when he turned in a pass from Dejan Kulusevski for his first goal since July 2020. He received a standing ovation from the crowd in Turin for ending his 43-match drought.
Juventus took advantage of Atalanta’s goalless draw at Genoa with a 2-0 win over Cagliari which inched them closer to Serie A’s Champions League places, as Salernitana’s trip to Udinese became the season’s first coronavirus-related casualty. Moise Kean’s header five minutes before the break and Federico Bernardeschi’s precision finish after a break-away late on at the Allianz Stadium moved Juve to within four points of fourth place in Italy’s top flight, currently occupied by Atalanta.
A fourth win in five matches means Massimiliano Allegri’s side end 2021 on a high but it was another in a long line of underwhelming performances from the Old Lady of Italian football, who sit fifth nine points behind league leaders Inter Milan ahead of their home clash with Torino on Wednesday.
After the winter break they face a true test of their ambitions for the season, with matches against Napoli, Roma, AC Milan and Atalanta all coming by mid-February.
“If we get to the end of February with the same gap between us and the first four places as now I’ll be happy,” Allegri said to DAZN.
You can’t win all your matches with your direct rivals so from then on they’ll have to play each other while we have a simpler calendar.
Juve were missing Paulo Dybala and Federico Chiesa in attack and rarely clicked going forward, while a troubled away side can wonder what might have been with better finishing.
Twice in the second half Cagliari, who are in the midst of a full-blown crisis after failing to muster a league win since mid-October, failed to put away gilt-edged chances following sloppy defending from the hosts.
Under-fire Cagliari coach Walter Mazzarri could hardly believe his eyes when, picked out completely alone on the hour mark by Raoul Bellanova’s perfect low cross, Dalbert somehow shanked wide with the goal at his mercy.
And eight minutes later Joao Pedro, just about the only bright sport for the Sardinian side this season with his nine Serie A goals, headed straight at Wojciech Szczesny from point-blank range.
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