atalanta     Atalanta                                                      0-3                                               Juventus         juventus

Tevez 35, 59 (J)
Morata 83 (J)

 Serie A – Week 5  [27th September 2014]  – Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia

It seems that Max Allegri’s Juventus tenure only gets better. Shutout victory has followed shutout victory, and in addition to their Serie A perfection the side has also notched a Champions League win. Today’s match, away at Bergamo versus Atalanta, was the end of the beginning of Juve’s season. Now the very hard work begins, as the hear to the Champions League group stage pops up alongside Serie A. Juventus face a baptism by fire with consecutive matches versus Atletico Madrid (Wednesday) and Roma on the weekend. Luckily, they left Bergamo with all three points, so they are perfectly set for this next stretch of games.

To be fair to Atalanta, they did not immediately wilt under Juve’s quality. In fact, Atalanta seemed to frustrate Juventus at first, with Daniele Baselli having a very early effort on goal that was close, but ended up going wide right. Atalanta would have a few more semi-dangerous chances, usually started with a German Denis pass, but eventually Juventus would take control.

Though Juventus more or less shut down Atalanta’s initial flurry within twenty minutes, they were still frustrated in attack for a little longer. There were close calls, nearly great ideas, and of course the customary audacious efforts borne out of frustration. Finally though, a Stephan Lichsteiner cross found Carlos Tevez, who beat his marker in the box and slammed the chance into the back of the net. Once again, Tevez scores to give Juventus the lead.

From there Juventus more or less had Atalanta at her will with one exception. Giorgio Chiellini fouled Salvatore Molina, earning Atalanta a penalty kick. German Denis took the kick, but his effort was quite poor and Gianluigi Buffon easily saved it. This led to a Juventus counter, which ended in a second Carlos Tevez goal, this time coming from a Patrice Evra assist. In about a minute, it went from possibly a 1-1 draw to a 2-0 Juventus lead.

From there, Allegri loosened the reins a bit and attempted to rest a few players ahead of the big match versus Atletico. Alvaro Morata came on for Fernando Llorente. Llorente had a good game in terms of contributing to build up play, but continued to struggle to in front of the net. Morata, on the other hand, filled in admirably for Llorente as a target man of sorts, and scored his first ever Juventus goal after firmly heading in a Roberto Pereyra cross. Pereyra had come on for Vidal moments after the initial Llorente-Morata substitution. Finally, Kingsley Coman got in a few minutes of garbage time after Carlos Tevez came off.

It was another superb match from Juventus, but there is no time to revel in the glory, as a very important game versus Atletico Madrid lurks ahead midweek, and perhaps even more importantly, the showdown versus Roma next weekend. It should be a fun week, to say the least.


Statistics

foot12 Man of the Match: Carlos Tevez
foot14 Corners 3 foot07 Total Shots:  16
foot13 Flop of the Match: N/A
foot05 Pass Accuracy: 81% foot01 Ball Possession:  60%
foot11 Fouls: 15 foot00 Shots on Target:   7 foot08 Formation:  3-5-2

 

Formation:


Lineups:

atalantaAtalanta: Sportiello; Zappacosta, Biava, Benalouane, Drame; Estigarribia (Molina 49), Baselli (Cigarini 64), Carmona, Gomez (Bianchi 75); Denis, Boakye

juventus Juventus: Buffon; Ogbonna, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Vidal (Pereyra 70), Marchisio, Pogba, Evra; Tevez (Coman 85), Llorente (Morata 67)

Ref: Orsato

 


Video Highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FfUPrvimqY