Serie A

Football Italia

·19 April 2024

Serie A | Cagliari 2-2 Juventus: Unconvincing Bianconeri

Juventus fought back from early Cagliari penalties to draw 2-2 in Sardinia with Dusan Vlahovic’s free kick and an own goal in another far from convincing performance.

The Bianconeri were stuttering after a goalless draw with Torino, making the trip without Moise Kean and Fabio Miretti, though Arkadiusz Milik returned and Wojciech Szczesny was able to start despite breaking his nose at the weekend. Carlos Alcaraz and Timothy Weah got rare starts. The hosts were four points clear of the drop zone after beating Atalanta and holding Inter 2-2 at San Siro. Nahitan Nandez and Alessandro Deiola returned from suspension, with Gaetano Oristanio shaking off a bout of tonsillitis, but Andrea Petagna, Leonardo Pavoletti and Marco Mancosu were still out.

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Zito Luvumbo blasted over in the opening minute, while Gianluca Gaetano just failed to connect with his cross and Dusan Vlahovic’s strike was charged down inside the penalty area before Weah fired straight at Simone Scuffet’s chest.

Szczesny had to stick out a boot to deny Luvumbo from five yards as a corner was knocked down by Dossena, but VAR spotted that the header struck Gleison Bremer’s arm and a penalty was converted by Gaetano.

It should’ve been 2-0 moments later, but Luvumbo volleyed onto the side-netting undisturbed from an Eldor Shomurodov cross.

Juve remained very fragile at the back and conceded another penalty when Luvumbo sprinted into the box and dinked it over Szczesny while being wiped out by the goalkeeper. Veteran defender Yerry Mina insisted on taking the spot-kick and buried it into the same corner as Gaetano.

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The Bianconeri had the ball in the net on 43 minutes when Federico Chiesa broke down the right and rolled across for the Vlahovic tap-in, but the Italian was flagged offside. It proved to be extraordinarily tight, as his knee was off.

Max Allegri had to do something, so introduced Kenan Yildiz for the disappointing Alcaraz, forming the trident attack that many had been calling for. Luvumbo just failed to get the tap-in on a Shomurodov ball flashed across the face of goal, while Szczesny flew to palm away a Prati first-time snapshot on a loose ball.

Juve got back into it with a Vlahovic free kick that he bent around the wall in at the near bottom corner with aid from Antoine Makoumbou ducking, though Nandez was adamant he had not touched Chiesa to give away the set piece.

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Allegri threw on every forward at his disposal to turn this around, but Gabriele Zappa threw himself in the way of an Andrea Cambiaso effort and Vlahovic’s acrobatic bicycle kick was over the bar.

The siege eventually paid off, as the Kenan Yildiz cross from the left was meant to be for Arkadiusz Milik, but Alberto Dossena came sliding in and accidentally turned it into his own net instead.