Red Card, Own Goal, Wasted Chances: How Juventus Beat Lazio In Serie A.

After a two-week international break, Juventus returned to domestic action on Saturday, when Lazio travelled north to Turin for a fixture that the host team has dominated in recent seasons. Indeed, in the last seven years, Lazio has only taken two points from their Serie A visits to the Allianz Stadium, with seven losses and one draw, with their last triumph coming in October 2017.

The two sides were tied in terms of points into this game, but the Bianconeri were severely weakened due to Francisco Conceicao’s suspension, as well as injuries to Gleison Bremer, Nico Gonzalez, Teun Koopmeiners, Weston McKennie, and Arek Milik.

Why Alessio Romagnoli was dismissed against Juventus

The opening exchanges saw both teams fight hard defensively to balance each other out, but it was Juve who struck first. A nice cross from Dusan Vlahovic put Pierre Kalulu through on goal, but the defender was taken down by Alessio Romagnoli’s diving tackle. Referee Juan Luca Sacchi permitted play to continue but was later summoned to evaluate the incident after a VAR review. The replay revealed a clear foul outside the area, and Romagnoli was given a straight red for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

“I was already thinking about how to shoot and score, but I was interrupted,” Kalulu told Sky Italia shortly after the game, before explaining that his run was pre-planned. “We had prepared this movement in training, to open up the spaces and run into the gap when they opened up,” he talked about. “We try to defend as a unit and attack as a unit, so I saw the gap and went for it.”

Vlahovic’s resulting free kick went over after hitting the crossbar, and he missed again from close range. Federico Gatti also shot wide following wonderful work from Andrea Cambiaso, as a determined Lazio side reached halftime with the game still scoreless. Juve piled on the pressure, with Vlahovic hitting the crossbar again in the 57th minute, then Douglas Luiz wasting a chance of his own nearly immediately after, meeting Tim Weah’s cross with a diving header.

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