Juventus took advantage of the points missed by Inter and Milan to close the gap with the leaders of
the Italian league, by beating Bologna 2-0 in the nineteenth stage, Sunday.
Juventus raised its score to 36 points, seven behind Milan, and a smaller match will be played against
Napoli at a date to be determined.
This victory comes after Juventus breathed a sigh of relief by winning the Italian Super Cup at the expense
of Napoli 2-0 this week, after a period of fluctuation in the levels of the “old lady” in the league, the last of which
was a loss to Inter with two clean goals in the last stage.
Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo expressed his happiness at the presentation of his team and described the victory
as “important” and said: “We did a good job in the first half, but if you were not able to settle the result completely,
you remain vulnerable to surprises.”
“We are a strong team, as we demonstrated in the Super Cup match, unlike our match with Inter, and it is about us,”
he added.
“Yoffe” opened the scoring by former Barcelona player Arthur Melo (15), after he hit a ball from outside the penalty
area, hitting the foot of Bologna defender Gerdi Schouten, to change course and enter the net.
The goal is the first for Arthur in the ranks of Juventus since his move to him early this season from Barcelona
in a deal that saw the Bosnian Miralem Pjanic move in the opposite direction.
The first half ended with this result, despite the multiple attacks of Juventus, but without producing any goals.
In the second half, the “Bianconeri” continued to dominate the match almost completely, despite the attempts
of Bologna, it was the Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Chechen in the lookout.
Juventus’ pressure resulted in a second goal with a great header from American Weston McKinney (71), converting
the corner by Colombian Juan Cuadrado into the net.
Juventus almost strengthened the score on more than one occasion, such as a shot by Frenchman Adrian Rabiot
(86) and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (90), but Polish goalkeeper Lucas Sorobsky also shone in front of them.
On Saturday, Milan won the title of “the go-to champion” despite its humiliating loss to Atalanta 3-0 in its
stronghold of “San Siro”, but the pursuit of Inter served him with a tie with host Udinese, 0-0.
Napoli lived a bad week, after losing to Juventus in the mid-week Super Cup match, they suddenly fell in front
of Verona 1-3.
