Palermo 0-3 Juventus: Ballardini claims defeat in first home game as Rosanero coach

Date: 29th November 2015 at 10:49pm
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Mandzukic JuventusPalermo were beaten by Juventus 3-0 on Sunday night in Serie A, handing new coach Davide Ballardini a defeat in his first game in charge of the Rosanero at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.

Mario Mandzukic broke the deadlock in the 54th minute, before Stefano Sturaro and Simone Zaza scored very late on to seal the victory.

Alberto Gilardino nearly opened the scoring just before the half hour mark but his effort from a tight angle couldn’t quite curve round into the back of the net and it went out of play.

The Bianconeri then had their chance and it should have been 1-0 from a corner, when the ball found Leonardo Bonucci in an abundance of space in front of goal but his header flew wide.

A bit of scrappy play in the penalty area nearly broke the deadlock with the hosts lucky not to be a goal down going into the break after a block on a Sturaro shot guided the ball out of the box.

Ten minutes into the second half and the Sicilians found themselves behind, when a perfect cross from their former employee Paulo Dybala drifted towards Mario Mandzukic who directed it towards goal.

The visitors kept pressurising Stefano Sorrentino in the Palermo goal, perhaps a bit too much as far as coach Davide Ballardini was concerned, with Juan Cuadrado the next to try his luck but Sorrentino punched it away from his near post.

Deep into the final few minutes of the match, Sturaro sealed all three points for the away team when he picked up on a good pass from Paul Pogba and the Italian placed the ball into the bottom corner.

It was made three with practically the last kick of the game when some good play from Simone Zaza gave him the opportunity to score Juventus’ third.

The Rosanero now sit in 16th place in the table, while Juventus are up to fifth.

 

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