There were four contenders for Serie A club of the week in the last round: Hellas Verona and Udinese came away with stunning wins over the Milan clubs, while Napoli and Juventus had dominating performances against Torino and Bologna. The Bianconeri gets the nod because they kept the clean sheet and also because their win is more relevant in the Scudetto race compared to Hellas and Udinese’s ones.
The Bianconeri made things clear rather quickly at the Dall’Ara Stadium, immediately taking charge and seeking room for opening goal. They had an early with scare on a Godfred Donsah shot after a powerful run, which was easily saved by Wojciech Szczeny, but this was the only chance for the opponent. Miralem Pjanic found the back of the net on a free kick at the 27th minute, with a little help from Antonio Mirante, who did not have the game of his life here, to use a euphemism.
Things became easy for the Old Lady after that, as the Felsinei could not put together a reaction and ten minutes later Mario Mandzukic doubled the score with a sliding shot after a sweet dime by Pjanic. Bologna’s defence proved to be too soft. The Bianconeri activated the cruise control and rounded up the result with an impressive lefty strike by Blaise Matuidi from just outside the box after 60th minutes. It was his first goal as a Bianconero.
Juventus kept the sixth clean sheet in a row and this gave a bunch of points to Szczesny and all defenders. Medhi Benatia and Andrea Barzagli severely outduelled Mattia Destro and Bruno Petkovic and Alex Sandro was effective going forward, showing some flashes of his best self. Even Mattia De Sciglio attacked a lot, as Bologna failed to put up a convincing resistance in this one. It was another good game for Douglas Costa, while Gonzalo Higuain had just a couple of chances and was booked for a late hit. Paulo Dybala did not make an impact in his limited stint.
The three points allowed Juventus to leapfrog Inter and return to the second position, just one point behind Napoli. They will face Roma on Saturday night.
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