Juventus Top Performers – Round 21 vs Roma

Juventus grabbed another quality win over a rival thanks to their most clinical and attentive performance of the season, defending diligently under pressure and taking full advantage of their limited opportunities.

Cristiano Ronaldo (3 points): it was not his flashiest goal, but arguably the most technical one he bagged since moving to Turin. He settled the ball with his right foot and fired with the left one in mere 0.52 seconds, sending it directly in the bottom corner and out of the goalie’s reach with incredible accuracy. January is in the books and so is his swoon and he never disappoints in big matches. He was even seen tracking back at times, so it was an all-around strong performance, although he could have paid more attention to the offside trap on a couple of potentially tasty chances. It was instead mostly a frustrating night for Alvaro Morata, who was bottled up and underfed given the defensive-minded posture of the team, but he slipped it to the teammate ahead of the opener, garnering an assist.

Alex Sandro (5 points): a vintage display by the Brazilian international, who had not played this well in weeks. He set up the first goal with a relentless run down the flank, tenaciously gliding past an opponent to bend the defense. More importantly, and surprisingly, he was extremely on point in the passive phase, where he struggles at times, but he had a pair of splending interceptions to thwart dangerous actions in this one. The team is sitting back more on the pitch and let the enemies have the ball, but it has successfully cut down the unsustainable number of major chances they used to give up. Whether it is the Giorgio Chiellini effect or a concerted effort by all parties involved in the process, we do not know, but Wojciech Szczesny did not have to pull off any superb save.

Arthur (1 points): he was not otherwordly but he his most ordinate and commanding outing in months, as he directed traffic very well in front of the defense, taking on the role usually covered by Rodrigo Bentancur and doing so with a touch more brilliance thanks to his superior technique. A rare game where he truly pulled the strings. Adrien Rabiot was not too shabby himself in a more proactive role and his runs where often very useful. Subs were key as Juan Cuadrado and Dejan Kulusevski combined to generate the own goal while Roma were producing their max effort to equalize, opening some room in the back and the Bianconeri delivered the kill-shot.

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