After Defeating Udinese, Juventus' Opportunity To Enter The Top Four Is Open

Juventus striker Paulo Dybala celebrates his goal against Udinese in the Italian League continued match at the Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy, Saturday (15/1/2022) local time. (ANTARA/REUTERS/Massimo Pinca)

JAKARTA - Juventus continues to be in the top four of the Italian League standings after beating Udinese 2-0 in the 22nd week match at the Allianz Stadium, Saturday, January 15 local time (Sunday, January 16 WIT).

Although still not moving from fifth position, the victory achieved thanks to goals from Paulo Dybala and Weston McKennie this time made Juventus close to Atalanta who was in fourth place.

Juventus and Atalanta both have 41 points, but the Old Lady have already played two more games than their rivals.

Meanwhile for Udinese, this second successive defeat kept them from moving from 14th with 20 points, according to the Italian League's official website.

Entering the match armed with a six-game winless streak, Massimiliano Allegri's team tried to suppress their visitors from the start and managed to open the scoring through Dybala's goal in the 19th minute.

Starting from a neat collective attack building, Dybala received Moise Kean's cross before bursting into the penalty box and slotting the ball into the top left corner of the Udinese goal.

Udinese's efforts to resist and create a counterattack were always broken due to inaccurate final passes so the 1-0 score for Juventus lasted until halftime.

Juventus kept control of the game and almost doubled their lead in the 74th minute if McKennie could have more accurately fired home a free-standing header from Mattia de Sciglio's cross.

Five minutes later, McKennie paid for his miss with a header that this time accurately completed De Sciglio's cross to double Juventus' lead over Udinese.

Two minutes before the normal dispersal, Udinese almost got the goal they were looking for, but Isaac Succes' powerful shot could still be parried by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny over the crossbar to ensure Juventus won with a clean sheet.

The next two teams are scheduled to first appear in the Coppa Italia last 16 on Tuesday (18/1) next week when Juventus host Sampdoria and Udinese travel to the Olimpico against Lazio.

Then on Saturday, January 22, Udinese will visit Luigi Ferraris against Genoa who just sacked Andriy Shevchenko and a day later Juventus will travel to the San Siro against AC Milan.