Salernitana-Juventus 1-2
NETWORKS: 39′ pt Major; 20′ st Iling-Junior, 46′ st Vlahovic.
SALERNITANA (3-5-2): Costil 6; Daniliuc 5.5, Fazio 6.5, Gyomber 5.5; Sambia 6.5 (44′ st Martegani sv), Maggiore 6, Legowski 6, Candreva 6.5, Bradaric 6.5; Tchaouna 6 (12′ st Bronn 6), Simy 5.5 (32′ st Ikwuemesi 6). On the bench. Fiorillo, Ochoa, Botheim, Stewart, Sfait, Lovato. Coach: Filippo Inzaghi 6.
JUVENTUS (3-5-2): Szczesny 6; Gatti 5.5 (1st minute Rugani 6.5), Bremer 6, Danilo 6.5; Weah 6 (36′ st Nonge 6), McKennie 6, Nicolussi Caviglia 5.5 (14′ st Milik 6), Rabiot 6.5, Kostic 5 (1′ st Iling-Junior 7); Vlahovic 7, Yildiz 6.5 (23′ st Miretti 6). On the bench: Pinsoglio, Perin. Coach: Allegri 7.
REFEREE: Guide to Torre Annunziata 6.5.
NOTE: pitch in good condition, light rain. Spectators: approximately 29 thousand. Booked: Gyomber, Filippo Inzaghi, Gatti, McKennie, Rugani, Vlahovic, Rabiot. Expelled: Maggiore, in the 8th minute, for a double yellow card. Corners: 8-2 for Juventus. Recovery: 0′; 6′.
A gore from Vlahovic in the 91st minute gave Juventus a precious victory in the Scudetto key. The Bianconeri beat a proud Salernitana team 2-1, who just a few days after the goleada suffered in the Italian Cup and were outnumbered for over half an hour, were about to get a significant point also for the fight for survival. Di Maggiore (sent off in the second half) and Iling Junior scored the other two goals of the match. Max Allegri’s team thus returns to -2 behind league leaders Inter, while Filippo Inzaghi’s men see their third useful result in a row in Serie A disappear after time expires, remaining last in the standings with 12 points. The Bianconeri immediately try to push on the accelerator but the first bell comes from the Campania region in the 4th minute: Sambia controls a cross coming from the left and kicks left-footed, forcing Szczesny to dive to block. Despite the scare, the guests kept control of the game, but without finding any way forward to hurt their opponents, who were good at defending themselves with order and character.
The twist comes in the 39th minute, when the Granata appear again in the Juventus area and find the blaze of the advantage: Sambia runs quickly to the right and touches for Tchaouna, who in turn serves the onrushing Maggiore, surgical with a left-footed shot from the edge to beat Szczesny for the 1st -0. At the start of the second half, Juve immediately tried to change the pace and in the 49th minute created a great opportunity for a possible equaliser, wasted by McKennie who missed a header all alone following a cross from Rabiot. In the 53rd minute the episode that risks changing the face of the match: Maggiore knocks out Rabiot himself and gets the second yellow card, leaving Salernitana numerically inferior for the last full half hour. Allegri’s team thus began to charge headlong and in the 65th minute equalized the score with the newly introduced Iling Junior, who collected a low cross from Weah missed by Vlahovic and sent the left-footed shot into the net to make it 1-1. However, the Campanians were not willing and immediately tried to respond, first with a powerful left-footed shot from Bradaric from distance blocked by Szczesny, then with a deflection in front of goal by Simy which ended just wide. In the final, Juve tried to charge headlong in search of the winning goal, finding it in injury time as it began thanks to a header from Vlahovic, who did a great job of beating Costil on Danilo’s perfect cross from the right.