Juventus piles pressure on Inter, Fiorentina thrashes Sampdoria

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Juventus has returned to winning ways to pile pressure on title rival, Inter Milan, which plays Lazio tonight in Serie A.

Having lost the summit to Antonio Conte’s men courtesy of 2-1 loss against Hellas Verona, the Bianconeri defeated relegation-threatened Brescia 2-0 at the Juventus Stadium in Turin.

The defending champion got the maximum points against ten-men Brescia through Paulo Dybala’s free-kick and a Juan Cuadrado effort.

Lazio was a  point adrift of Juve before the game. The pressure will be on them to deliver against one of the best teams so far in the league.

Inter will be going into the clash confident with a 4-2 win over fellow city rivals AC Milan last week. Lazio, on the other hand, is coming to the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium high on confidence on the back of slim 1-0 win away at Parma.

With Cristiano Ronaldo rested, Douglas Costa, Federico Bernardeschi, Sami Khedira, and Merih Demiral were injured. But Maurizio Sarri maintained the 4-3-3 formation against the Rondinelle under new coach Diego Lopez. Brescia had an injury headache with Jesse Joronen, Sandro Tonali, Romulo, Andrea Cistana, Ernesto Torregrossa, and Daniele Gastaldello, all out injured.

Their second goalkeeper. Enrico Alfonso joined those in the treatment when he got an accidental knee to the head from Gonzalo Higuain. He had to come off for the third choice goalkeeper Lorenzo Antenacci to make his Serie A debut just 10 minutes into the game.

Florian Aye’s moment of madness got him a marching order having been booked a few minutes earlier.  He body-checked Aaron Ramsey on the edge of the box and was shown the second yellow card.

Juve got in front from the resulting free-kick, as Dybala curled a typically majestic finish into the top corner.

With a numerical advantage, the Bianconeri were in total control. Second-half substitute, Blaise Matuidi aided Cuadrado with a give-and-go on the edge of the area for the Colombian to turn in at the near post.

Fiorentina looked to have found their goal-scoring form again after demolishing resurgent Sampdoria 5-1 at Marassi.

The visitors went ahead against the run of play early on, as Dusan Vlahovic, who won back the ball in the midfield, was accidentally bundled over by Morten Thorsby, prompting the referee to point to the penalty spot which he converted.

Fiorentina doubled their lead after Gaston Ramirez’s uncoordinated jump led to the ball catching his flailing arm. Vlahovic made no mistake again from the spot to convert the penalty.

Fiorentina scored their third goal from another penalty. Sampdoria was reduced to 10 men when Nicola Murru received his second yellow card of the game after jumping with elbow raised on German Pezzella’s face. Chiesa stepped up this time around to convert the spot-kick.

Fiorentina was later reduced to 10 men as well. Milan Badelj’s late challenge on Andrea Bertolacci got him his second yellow card of the game.

Fiorentina extended their lead in the second half as Vlahovic tapped in Dalbert’s angled drive, which hit Audero’s legs at the near post.

Chiesa got his brace after almost falling over, but he managed to still steer the curler into the far top corner inside the area.

Manolo Gabbiadini reduced the deficit for his team with his diving header on Colley’s cross.

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