Juventus Vs Napoli: Dybala's Comeback And Reduced Pressure On Pirlo
JAKARTA - Paulo Dybala marked his comeback to Juventus' first-team squad by scoring the decisive goal in Juventus' 2-1 win over Napoli at Allianz Stadium on Thursday morning.
The Italian League's postponement match was supposed to take place on October 4 last year but was rescheduled due to a travel ban following the COVID-19 case.
Leonardo Bonucci and Federico Bernardeschi missed the match due to COVID-19, but Merih Demiral recovered to be on the bench.
Weston McKennie, Paulo Dybala and Arthur were also re-included in the squad after being suspended for breaching lockdown rules by hosting a party at McKennie's home. Instead Napoli only lost Faouzi Ghoulam, while Kalidou Koulibaly returned to the pitch after being banned from playing.
Cristiano Ronaldo almost put Juve ahead in the second minute when his header from Danilo's pass from the right side went wide of napoli's goal.
Piotr Zielinski also squandered a golden opportunity, but Ronaldo eventually became juventus' first goal creator.
Federico Chiesa maneuvered to outwit two Napoli defenders from the right sector to unleash a sweetly completed pass by Ronaldoo in the 13th minute.
Fabian Ruiz almost equalised from a good position but his shot bounced off the juventus goal.
Juve had been expecting a penalty after Hirving Lozano was seen dropping Chiesa right on the penalty line but it was decided the incident happened outside the box.
Juan Cuadrado also broke through the Napoli defence but was denied by Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret. Instead, Lorenzo Insigne's shot deflected off the juventus goal.
Chiesa wasted a golden opportunity by kicking the ball over napoli's goal. Napoli themselves failed to get a penalty after the referee and VAR decided Alex Sandro did not foul Zielinski inside the Napoli penalty box.
In the second half Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon had to make a save from Giovanni Di Lorenzo's goal attempt which was sent off by Insigne.
Dybala doubled his lead to 2-0 for Juventus in the 73rd minute after unleashing a curling shot into the bottom corner of the Napoli net.
In the last minute of the match Lorenzo Insigne gave Napoli a consolation goal from a penalty kick. However, this goal did not prevent Napoli from continuing the trend of four consecutive wins.
Citing Antara, this victory meant a lot to Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo who was again depressed after picking up just one point from two games against two relegation-threatened teams, Benevento and Torino.
The defending league champions sit third in the Serie A standings with 59 points or one point clear of second-placed AC Milan. Napoli finished fifth with 56 points.
FT | VITTORIA IMPORTANTISSIMA ⚪️⚫️ I goal in @Cristiano e @PauDybala_JR valgono i tre punti 🔥💎Ben fatto, ragazzi! 💪💪#JuveNapoli #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/h4pVk3lQ8p
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) April 7, 2021