MY ACCOUNT
Juventus racked up an 11th consecutive Serie A win over Bologna as goals from Alvaro Morata and Juan Cuadrado sealed a 2-0 win at Stadio Renato Dall’Ara.
The Bianconeri were held to a 1-1 draw by Venezia in their last top-flight outing but they never looked in danger of dropping more points after Morata’s early opener.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side largely toiled in the second period, yet Cuadrado ensured there was to be no nervy finish with a deflected strike in the 69th minute.
The result lifted Juventus up to sixth, level on 31 points with fifth-placed Roma, while Bologna remained in 10th.
Juve went ahead in the sixth minute when Morata lashed past Lukasz Skorupski from six yards after being superbly picked out by Federico Bernardeschi.
Mattias Svanberg went close with an audacious overhead kick midway through the first half as Bologna responded well to that early setback, though they could not find a leveller before the interval.
Juve offered little in the way of attacking threat immediately after the break, only making sure of the win when Cuadrado’s powerful strike from just inside the penalty area was deflected past Skorupski by Aaron Hickey.
That goal freed up the visitors to push forward in the closing stages, with Bernardeschi’s low strike tipped wide by Skorupski, yet they ultimately failed to add further gloss to the scoreline.
What does it mean? Juve swat aside hosts
It has been a challenging return to Juve for Allegri this season, but there were signs here that things might be clicking into place. They looked robust in defence – limiting Bologna to just three shots on target – while they were ruthless in attack.
He will be looking for plenty more of that as they look to cut into Inter’s 12-point lead at the Serie A summit.
Morata enjoying life on the road
Morata has now found the back of the net in three consecutive away games. It is the first time the Spain international has done that in one of the big five European leagues since May 2017 when he struck in four straight matches on the road with Real Madrid.
Kean off the pace
Moise Kean endured a difficult 71 minutes before he was replaced by Dejan Kulusevski, the Italy international failing to have a single shot or play a key pass. This was his sixth straight Serie A outing without a goal.
What’s next?
Juve wrap up 2021 with a home game against Cagliari on Tuesday, while Bologna travel to Sassuolo a day later before the mid-season break.
