Juventus almost got upended by their kryptonite, a minnow that bunkers up, but a late push and two penalty kicks ultimately allowed them to defeat Genoa and keep up with the other Serie A powerhouses in the standings.
Matthijs De Ligt: nobody stood out in the rearguard and so the nod goes by default to the Dutchman, who is always the busiest defender no matter how the match goes. However, he too was distant from a pristine performance to some technical problems when trying to charge forward, but nothing too problematic and Genoa barely attacked in this one. The back-line again got pierces on the first chance as Alex Sandro was caught between two opponents on a cross and botched his clearance, maybe also Leonardo Bonucci should have been in a different position there too.
Juan Cuadrado: it was not his best outing given the outstanding level he reached in some of the recent matches, but he produced the game-winning play by bursting past his opponent deep into the box and taking advantage of Niccolò Rovella’s inexperience by protecting the ball in the proper manner to draw a penalty. Outside of the Colombian winger, Rodrigo Bentancur had the most noticeable performance out of the midfielders as he recuperated a myriad of balls in enemy territory with great volition, which continuously fed the front-line and kept the center of gravity of the team high. Weston McKennie tried to replicate his goal-scoring magic with multiple cuts but his timing was just a tad off today, while Adrien Rabiot was held back by an early ludicrous yellow card and never fully seemed to get in the game.
Paulo Dybala: Cristiano Ronaldo gets the glory of convertng penalty kicks, but the best man up front was La Joya, who finally snapped out of his funk with one of his trademark goals, as he wrong-footed the goalkeeper with a low-driven lefty strike after tightly slaloming through defenders in the box. He almost had a stunning tap-in with an overhead kick, but a slight offside bit him there. The partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo is still a work in progress and at times the Bianconeri lacked presence in the box, but it did no harm in this case as the goals arrived anyway through different methods. Pretty good showing for Federico Chiesa, who ripped off few powerful runs down the left wing but looks a little constrained in general in that role.
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