Empoli 0-2 Juventus
Pirlo 61 (J), Morata 72 (J)
Serie A – Week 10 [1st November 2014] – Stadio Carlo Castellani
Alvaro Morata and Andrea Pirlo goals earned Juventus a valuable win in Empoli and a 3 point lead at the top of the table but Angelo Ogbonna and Kwadwo Asamoah are injury doubts for the game against Olympiakos midweek.
Juventus were celebrating the 117th anniversary of their foundation and had a chance to go clear at the top following Napoli’s 2-0 victory against Roma earlier in the day. Max Allegri opted to rotate his team and rest Carlos Tevez, Fernando Llorente, Paul Pogba and Stephan Lichtsteiner while Andrea Barzagli, Patrice Evra and Martin Caceres were all out through injury.
Sebastian Giovinco was given a rare start partnering Alvaro Morata up front and made a good early start, forcing 2 vital blocks from Empoli while Gigi Buffon made an easy save from Piotr Zielinski’s effort. Alvaro Morata made a strong into the box but his assist was intercepted by Daniele Rugani with Giovinco poised to tap in the ball.
Giorgio Chiellini headed over before Arturo Vidal fired his shot straight at Davide Bassi following another smart play from Morata. Angelo Ogbonna picked up a serious knock from Chiellini early on and limped through the remainder of the first half before being replaced by Stephan Lichtsteiner who filled in at centre-back.
Vidal looked off the pace in the first half and made a late challenge that saw him booked and suspended for Juve’s next league match against Parma. Juve came to life in the second half and Kwadwo Asamoah finally created a chance on 55 minutes, forcing a save from Bassi and Marchisio’s follow-up effort was just wide of the far post.
Chiellini’s headed effort from a corner skimmed the far post but Juventus finally broke the deadlock on 61 minutes. Andrea Pirlo netted his first goal of the season with a trademark free kick that dipped over the wall leaving Bassi unsighted until it was too late to attempt a save.
Empoli made a fight of it and Manuel Pucciarelli’s deflected shot rose above Gigi Buffon but the veteran keeper beat it away with his trailing hand. Carlos Tevez should have put Juve 2-0 up but for Bassi who parried the strikers’ effort before Marchisio turned the follow up onto the crossbar.
Juventus finally got their second and it was Morata who bagged it. Carlos Tevez played a perfect pass into the Spanish striker who cut in on his left foot and curled a sublime finish into the far top corner.
There was more bad news for Allegri as Asamoah left the field injured. Tevez found himself in space but a heroic save from Bassi prevented Juve scoring a third. Buffon made a spectacular charge down late on to deny Francesco Tavano before Lorenzo Tonelli was booked in stoppage time for his body-check on Tevez, ending a clear scoring opportunity.
Statistics
Man of the Match: | Pirlo |
Corners | 6 | Total Shots: | 18 | |||
Flop of the Match: | Giovinco | Pass Accuracy: | 83% | Ball Possession: | 57% | |||
Fouls: | 16 | Shots on Target: | 7 | Formation: | 3-5-2 |
Formation:
Lineups:
Empoli: Bassi; Laurini (Hysaj 57), Tonelli, Rugani, Mario Rui; Vecino, Valdifiori, Croce; Zielinski (Tavano 73), Maccarone (Mchedlidze 79), Pucciarelli
Juventus: Buffon; Bonucci, Ogbonna (Lichtsteiner 46), Chiellini; Pereyra, Vidal, Pirlo, Marchisio, Asamoah (Padoin 80); Giovinco (Tevez 68), Morata
Ref: Valeri
Sent off: Tonelli 94 (E)
Video Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wb7cTTsCy0
they still stink …..
ok
I don’t think it’s them i’m smelling though..
Just go support chelsea or something
Our performance against Empoli, doesn’t make me confident that we can beat Olympiakos.
ok.. go support other team.
https://football-italia.net/58124/padoin-could-face-olympiacos ffs are you for real
Lame
and doubting between llorente and morata too, officially stupid
https://football-italia.net/58118/pogba-salary-could-reach-%E2%82%AC65m
Pogbas salary could have a clause that raises his salary each year he stays with the club. In 3 years he could be making 6.5m.
Still so worth it
true! Forza Pogbomb!
Against Empoli we showed, Allegri has know idea how to break a team down. He just makes us pass the ball around for ages and ages, then pass up the wing, cross and hope Tevez digs us out of shit. It’s so easy for any coach to find out how to defend against that.
I hope you don’t get offended. but you have to much negativism against the team, the site, and the people who wants to write comments here.. change of formation, change of tactics, poor coaching,… please also read a comment especially paragraph 2 that I copied below:
“I don’t disagree, except maybe the ‘economy version of bayern or real’, my point was you cant just willy nilly change a formation and ask the team to up their tempo, the last 20 minutes against Olimpiakos was deceiving, it was more panic attack than bombardment.
There are a lot of factors before you decide to change formation, and the most crucial factor is time, you can’t expect teams to just leave their comfort zone to try something new and then ask instant results while they have a really congested fixture; another factor is the squad composition, you can’t ask the team to play a fast paced tempo with Pirlo as the regista, you might get a faster tempo with Marchisio but he lacks them magic to unlock stubborn defenses if deployed as regista… at best he could only make quick distribution of to keep possession; another factor is squad harmony, it’s no secret that Pirlo is not a big fan of Allegri, so taking the regista position out will perhaps help the game… but an unhappy player is the least thing we need now; perhaps Allegri doesn’t have to take out the regista position and just add more attackers up front by taking out one of the CB’s that’s also not going to happen with the backline being among our best performers game after game.
The most realistic thing that Allegri could do is shapeshift the running eleven as the game proceeds, and he already done this several times despite unfavorable results, such as in the last two CL games.
Also while we’re still discussing about formation and tempo, I checked the Roma blog few hours ago trying to get some lulz reading the comments of tifosi giallomerda, and guess what, they’re also complaining about Rudi Garcia’s stubbornness and lack of flexibility whereas they already have strong and quick players who fit for Rudi Garcia’s system, and yet here we are wanting to implement 4-3-anything disregarding which parts of Juve’s system that performs the best (currently the defense) and the worst (currently the midfield).
One last thing, to make changes we need options, and with the current injury situation in defense I don’t think Allegri have much choice to make changes, moreover for four men backline formations, so lets be realistic here and enjoy the week, FML we’re on top of the table with 3 points lead over Roma!”
I’m a professional moaner