Serie A, Juve-Sampdoria 3-0: Kulusevski, Bonucci and Cristiano Ronaldo show

TORINO – Coaches and footballers are a professional category for which the saying about never-ending exams is even excessive, more than true. Andrea Pirlo and Dejan Kulusevski are therefore still awaited by an infinite number of tests. Meanwhile, however, after passing the Uefa Pro training exam last Monday – Pirlo – and the first season exam in Serie A last year – Kulusevski – they also passed the field exam and the jersey exam. in an excellent way. bianconera.

Pirlo did it in Pirlo, surprising everyone with a pitch that no one had thought of. That of Gianluca Frabotta, a twenty-one-year-old left back of the U23 team who had made his debut as a starter on the last day of last season, replacing the injured Alex Sandro. And with a not-so-surprising launch, but certainly not taken for granted: that of 22-year-old Weston McKennie, the last to arrive, immediately among the owners.

For the rest, the formation of the first Juventus was as announced: forwards Cristiano Ronaldo and Kulusevski, supported by the incursions of Cuadrado, Ramsey and Frabotta; Rabiot and McKennie center pivots, assisted in coverage by the folds of Cuadrado and Ramsey; Defenders of Danilo, Bonucci and Chiellini, joined by Frabotta in the non-possession phase.

A phase in which Juventus, however, found little (67% possession of the ball at the end of the first half): very applied in following Pirlo’s dictates, the Bianconeri immediately took over the game, creating a danger after another with Ramsey, Danilo and Ronaldo, until Kulusevski’s great goal in the 13th minute: a billiard shot (an abused but perfect metaphor, in the case) with the left, as before. Pearl of excellent quality and quantity performance. Sampdoria has outlined a reaction, immediately stifled by the aggressiveness of a Juventus that has almost doubled several times, denied at 24 ‘from the crossbar to a live Ronaldo but less precise than usual.

Here, if there was a defect, in the first half of Juventus, it was the relationship between the superiority expressed (8 shots to 2) and the only goal scored. Long-standing flaw, often noted last season. Thus the Sampdoria knew how to try to balance the result in the second half, increasing the offensive potential with Quagliarella and Ramírez. Within a few minutes of adjusting to the new Sampdoria setup, Juventus got back into the game, carried away by the energy of McKennie and Ramsey and the strength of Rabiot, however encountering tougher and more reactive opposition in Sampdoria. The opposition missed a corner in the 33rd minute, when an aerial rebound between McKennie and Bonucci Berezinskyi clicked on the postponement and the Juventus defender made it 2-0 from two steps. Closed match, had it not been for the reappearance of another old Juventus defect: retaining the three points acquired before time. Sampdoria then had a couple of chances to reopen the game and in the 37th minute Szczesny did a miracle with a header from Ekdal deflected by Bonucci, while in the 41st minute Quagliarella brushed a diagonal post. In the middle there was also a save by Audero’s foot on McKennie, to temporarily avoid the 3-0 in a pyrotechnic final, closed by the most anticipated firework, two minutes from the end: the seven hundred and forty goal of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career.

Three to zero, the same numbers that make up a 30: the first university exam was passed by Maestro Pirlo to the well-deserved applause of the thousands present in the stands.

Serie A, Juve-Sampdoria 3-0: match report and statistics

Serie A standings