Moise Kean’s header and the first Federico Bernardeschi goal in Serie A since July 2020 allowed Juventus to beat Cagliari 2-0, but there were a couple of scares too.
The Bianconeri missed Paulo Dybala, Federico Chiesa, Aaron Ramsey, Danilo and Giorgio Chiellini, but Arthur was confirmed with Moise Kean and Alvaro Morata upfront. The Sardinians were in deep crisis after back-to-back 4-0 defeats and one win all season in Serie A. Nahitan Nandez, Marko Rog, Kevin Strootman and Sebastian Walukiewicz were injured, with Razvan Marin suspended. Diego Godin and Martin Caceres were frozen out.
Kean thought he’d scored in the opening 12 minutes, but his header on a Juan Cuadrado cross thumped the far post.
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The only times Cagliari created any kind of danger was from Juve errors, such as a Leonardo Bonucci back-pass.
The breakthrough finally came when Federico Bernardeschi went on a smart run towards the right, cut back inside and crossed with his left foot for the head of Kean.
Alex Sandro nodded a corner wide of the near post, but Cagliari should’ve equalised when Raoul Bellanova flashed a ball across the six-yard box and Dalbert couldn’t steer it on target, only making slight contact.
They threatened again, Wojciech Szczesny needing a fantastic fingertip save to push Joao Pedro’s header over the bar.
Juve finally secured the points with a very rare goal from Bernardeschi. He was sent on the counter by Dejan Kulusevski and smashed the angled drive across Cragno into the far bottom corner with his left foot. It ended a 43-game Serie A goal drought, his first since facing Sampdoria in July 2020 and he received a standing ovation from the crowd in Turin.
Juventus 2-0 Cagliari
Kean 40 (J), Bernardeschi 83 (J)
What Berna actually scored a goal. Dios Mio, it will be another 4 years until he gets another one. Saviour these rare moments.
It ended a 43-game Serie A goal drought,
This is a team rich in history of WC and Euro winners, what is the meaning of this? 43 games is that like more than a yr, we can’t have this sort of thing in this kind of team.
BTW congrats to Allegri et al for the win.
@tony I know I couldn’t believe my eyes when Bernardeschi scored. Cragno will be going home in shame considering he puts most of his shots into orbit (55th minute). Anyways this was not a good performance despite the clean sheet. Dilbert should have scored and any other team and we get punished. He was not marked properly and this was the same for Joao Pedro leaving him completely free with that header. We need Chiellini back asap as his little brother cannot marshal the backline good enough. The team has no rhythm and is clueless esp in the final third. Cagliari have conceded 38 goals and it was painful watching a team that cannot build up from the back quickly, no cohesion and the ball is predictably played back in the last third. Even Udinese could put 4 goals past them and do not get me started with Inter, but it is true they peppered them from start to finish. Cagliari were even missing Marin, Nandez, Caceras and Godin. Allegri starting Bentancur and Rabiot is just another disaster. Too slow, lazy esp Rabiot and no creativity. Changing the middle again bringing nothing. Just start Locatelli and McKennie (even though he is not great). At least the American runs into the box.