As a result of Federico Gatti’s header in the second half, Juventus defeated Napoli 1-0 in Turin, allowing them to regain their position as the top team in Serie A.
As a result of this result, Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus has won five games in a row by a narrow lead of 1 goal. They have now moved ahead of Inter Milan for the time being, and they will face Udinese tomorrow.
This past weekend, Gatti scored the game-winning goal, and he did it again tonight, albeit with slightly less dramatic circumstances. His goal at Monza, which came in the 94th minute, provided the winning goal.
In the first half, Napoli had the better of the action, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was responsible for wasting a golden opportunity. However, Juventus got off to a great start in the second half, scored the goal that was most essential, and hung on in a manner that was typical Allegri.
As a result of Napoli’s third consecutive loss under the leadership of new manager Walter Mazzarri, the club is now outside of the top four and 14 points behind where they were at the same point in the previous season.
In the opening ten minutes of the match, the home team’s Andrea Cambiaso had the first opportunity to score, but he missed the target with his shot. Napoli then had two half chances of their own, both of which came close to scoring the first goal.
A bad cross from Giovanni Di Lorenzo almost completely caught Wojciech Szczesny out at his front post. However, the goalkeeper for Juventus was able to just about prevent the ball from crossing the line. Matteo Politano then flashed an effort wide when he cut in from the left side of the field.
Dusan Vlahovic had the only real clear opportunity of the first half for the home team, but he battled to get full control of the ball. Natan was able to get in the way of his eventual shot on goal, and Weston McKennie tried to score from an overhead kick on the rebound, but he was unsuccessful.
Napoli then committed two major errors, the first of which was a miss from Kvaratskhelia just before the half-hour mark. At that time, the entire Juventus defense was dragged over towards Victor Osimhen, and the striker expertly held the ball up before finding the Georgian, but through one-on-one, he inexplicably fired over the top of the net.
After Bremer’s clearance cannoned back off Gatti, Napoli’s captain Di Lorenzo found himself with the goal at his mercy. However, Szczesny was there to make a wonderful stop. The Bianconeri’s defense was even more dubious, which contributed to the opening.
After enduring a number of significant scares in the first half of the match, Juventus took advantage of the situation early on in the second half by seizing control of the game themselves. This began with Vlahovic hitting the post, and despite the fact that McKennie was offside in the buildup, replays indicated that it was extremely close call.
However, within two minutes, Juventus scored their goal, and it came from an unexpected source once again. It was the same source that scored the game-winning goal the previous week, as Gatti leaped above Di Lorenzo and Amir Rrahmani to head Cambiaso’s cross into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
Despite the fact that the most of the second half was still to be played, Juventus almost immediately sank much deeper in order to maintain their advantage. This was achieved despite the fact that Allegri is frequently the master of grinding out 1-0 victories.
The game strategy that Juve was employing was, for the most part, successful, despite the fact that Politano and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa both had half chances that never threatened the goal.
However, the home crowd was given a scare on the 70th minute when Politano intercepted a casual pass out from Szczesny. Politano then found Osimhen, and with the goalkeeper in no man’s land, the Nigerian circled him and slotted into the empty net, only to see the linesman’s flag deny him.
As Napoli failed to penetrate both aerially and through the lines, the Old Lady proceeded to drop deeper and deeper, with six or seven players defending their six-yard box alongside Szczesny. This occurred without Napoli being able to break through the lines.
Even if it was not a pretty match, Allegri’s strategies were successful once again against one of the other major teams in Serie A. The Partenopei were unable to generate any additional opportunities during the five minutes of extra time that were added to the match.
Because of this triumph, Juventus is now one point ahead of Inter. However, Juve will be playing first once more the following weekend, when they travel to Genoa on Friday.
The difficulties that Napoli is experiencing continue with another loss, and they must make certain that they do not suffer a defeat by two goals or more when they play Braga in the middle of the week. If they do not do this, they will be eliminated from the Champions League.
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