Below-par Juventus clinch all three points against Udinese this evening | OneFootball

Juventus were nothing close to their best this evening, but that didn’t stop them from earning themselves a 2-0 victory over Udinese.

The Old Lady started the game well, moving the ball around swiftly and looking to take control of things early. That early dominance paid off when Paulo Dybala was played into Paulo Dybala on the edge of the box to carry it into the box before lifting it around the rushing goalkeeper.

His celebration was a talking point however, as he refused to celebrate with his team-mates, but instead took the opportunity to simply stare into the crowd (possibly at Nedved in particular), and I’m sure this will be a bigger talking point over the coming days.

The continue to be the better in possession for much of the half, but we were having little success breaking into the final third, but we went into the break 1-0 up.

Arthur was replaced after seemingly playing out the half with a knock, while Dejan Kulusevski was also replaced by Bernadeschi during the break.

It was all Udinese from the restart however, enjoying a 15-minute spell where we were totally under the cosh, and fear was growing that they were going to punish us, but thankfully we managed to steady the ship on the hourmark and once again began to assert, but our final goal didn’t come until there was just 10 minutes left to play. Shortly before the goal however, there was a potential penalty decision to be made at the other end, but thankfully VAR didn’t bother to request a second look be taken.

We done well in possession mostly, but in the final third we really were lacking, although Max Allegri did warn us in his pre-match conference that our rivals would be difficult to break down after setting up defensively.

After playing 120 minutes in midweek, I think it would be harsh to be overly critical of the side, but a wins a win, and we were still the better team on the night, even if we know we can be better.

Patrick