March 12, (THEWILL) – On Saturday in the Serie A, Juventus beat Sampdoria 3-1 to go close to within a point of third-placed Napoli in a result that will put extra pressure on Luciano Spalletti’s charges.
Despite a late strike by Abdelhamid Sabiri, Maya Yoshida’s own goal and an Alvaro Morata brace, were enough to give Massimiliano Allegri’s side all three points at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Wojciech Szczesny also had a hand in the victory as he saved Antonio Candreva’s penalty in the second half, sealing the win and providing the Bianconeri impetus heading into their Champions League last-16 second leg against Villarreal on Wednesday.
With that game in mind, Dusan Vlahovic was benched in favour of Moise Kean, who began alongside Morata. The game started off slowly, with Candreva’s first attempt on target coming in the 22nd minute, which Szczesny palmed away.
Juve then raced up the other end and seized the lead when Yoshida turned Juan Cuadrado’s right-wing cross into his own net.
Surprisingly, Allegri’s side led before they had a single attempt on target, and Morata made it 2-0 with a calm penalty kick after Omar Colley had brought down Kean in the box.
Adrien Rabiot was adjudged to have hand-balled in the box for a Sampdoria spot kick, but Szczesny got a good hand to Candreva’s penalty kick down to his right to maintain the score at 2-0 for a brief moment.
In the 84th minute, the Polish goalkeeper could do nothing about Sabiri’s free-kick, which deflected in off substitute Vlahovic to give the home side late hope, but Juve regained their two-goal lead immediately after when Morata headed in Manuel Locatelli’s cross at the back post to seal victory.
On Wednesday, Juventus will play Villarreal in the second leg of their round-of-16 Champions League tie at home. Next Sunday, Sampdoria travel to Venezia for a crucial Serie A match against a team at the bottom of the table.
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.
