April 10, (THEWILL) – With a 2-1 Serie A win over Cagliari, Juventus solidified their hold on a top-four berth and kept the potential of their Scudetto ambitions going.
Massimiliano Allegri has consistently rebuffed talk of Juve joining an enthralling three-way title race, but the Bianconeri are now just five points behind Milan – despite having played a game more – after Saturday’s victory in Sardinia.
When Joao Pedro handed Cagliari a surprising early lead and Luca Pellegrini’s goal was controversially disallowed, Allegri’s men were in danger of losing.
Juve, on the other hand, managed to turn things around with a Matthijs de Ligt’s equaliser and Dusan Vlahovic’s 75th-minute winner.
Relegation-threatened Cagliari had lost their previous four league games, but Joao Pedro’s spectacular shot gave them the lead in the 10th minute.
Much of the heavy-lifting was done byRazvan Marin, who sprinted down the right flank and handed the ball off for Joao Pedro to guide into the top-left corner.
When Pellegrini’s left-footed drive deflected past Alessio Cragno, Juve appeared to have equalised, but the goal was ruled out for handball by the VAR officials, with the ball contacting Adrien Rabiot’s elbow on its way in.
The Bianconeri did not relent but continued to pepper the Cagliari goal, and their reward arrived on the stroke of half-time.
A long-range shot by Juan Cuadrado was saved, but the same player provided a clever cross following the corner, which De Ligt met with a header into the bottom-left corner.
Soon after the restart, Giorgio Chiellini had a goal disallowed for offside, and Dybala fired over on the half-volley before teeing up Cuadrado, who shot well wide of the far post.
After being denied by Cragno moments before, Vlahovic watched Giorgio Altare’s attempted interception of Dybala’s through ball rebound off his thigh and beyond the unfortunate Cagliari goalkeeper 15 minutes from the end of normal time.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
