Juventus bounces back after its recent Serie A defeat—with a very important away win against its direct neighbor Bologna. The Turin coach was particularly pleased with the result.
Juventus had struggled to a 2-0 win over Pafos FC in the Champions League during the week, once again showing problems in their build-up play and dominance.
Coach Luciano Spalletti’s team, who lost his first game as Juve coach a week ago at his old club Napoli, did not improve in Bologna.
At FCB, however, the defensive department around Kalulu, Kelly, Koopmeiners, and the late returnee Bremer put in a convincing performance. The home side’s Rossoblu attack struggled greatly.
Cabal heads, Openda falls
And the best thing from the Old Lady’s point of view: Coach Spalletti made two correct decisions in the 61st minute by bringing on Cabal and Openda as fresh forces with the score at 0-0.
The former immediately became the match winner in the 64th minute when he lurked in the right spot after a short corner from Francisco Conceicao and crosser Yildiz and coolly headed in to make it 1-0.
Shortly afterwards, former Leipzig player Openda cleverly positioned himself after a long ball from keeper Di Gregorio, beat Heggem with a robust but fair challenge and was shown a straight red card after his emergency brake (69′). Bologna was unable to recover from this double blow in the form of a goal and a sending-off, even with the introduction of their own substitute and former Turin player Bernardeschi, who at least came close once (83′).
At the end of the day, the Italian record champions had secured three very important points, overtaking their direct neighbors in the table, Bologna, and positioning themselves within reach of the top of the league with 26 points.
