Juventus beat Genoa 1-0 at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium on Sunday night in Serie A.
The Bianconeri continue their march to a third consecutive Scudetto as a late free-kick by Andrea Pirlo saw them overcome a determined Grifone who had themselves seen Emanuele Calaio miss a second half penalty.
Despite little in the way of attacking threat the home side started the match extremely positively with Gian Piero Gasperini’s men not afraid to apply pressure on the champions elect, however, their determined approach also saw four Grifone players booked inside the opening 30 minutes.
Despite that it was actually after Alberto Gilardino was harshly penalised for a tackle on Arturo Vidal on 20 minutes that the visitors thought they had taken the lead.
From the halfway line Pirlo sent the resulting free kick towards Pablo Osvaldo only for it to be cleared straight into strike partner Fernando Llorente and rebounding into his path, but although the Italian international beat Mattia Perin with a delicate chip the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.
With the intensity continuing few chances were created until the closing stages of the half, firstly when Marco Motta sent a wonderful cross from the right into the box, but Andrea Bertolacci headed woefully off target as he collided somewhat accidently with Stephan Lichsteiner.
Seconds later the Rossoblu were finally benefiting from the poor officiating after Paul Pogba surged towards goal and played a clever back-heeled pass to Osvaldo who finished with another perfectly weighted dink over Perin only to have it disallowed again for offside, this time incorrectly.
With Pogba becoming an influential figure for the Bianconeri he received the ball in a similar position with five minutes remaining chose not to play in the striker, instead drive a low left footed strike just past Perin’s left post.
The Grifone the second half as confidently as the first and nearly took the lead 10 minutes in when Stefano Sturaro’s impressive stepover sent Giorgio Chiellini the wrong way, but he drilled his shot straight at Gianluigi Buffon and Motta could only drive the loose ball well wide.
With 20 minutes remaining, and Juventus desperately lacking any real attacking intent, the Bianconeri had a soft penalty call waved away by Paolo Mazzoleni after Llorente’s pass had struck the trailing arm of Luca Antonelli from close range before the Rossoblu had a chance to take the lead from 12 yards.
As the ball was played into the Juventus box from the right it skipped up off the turf striking the arm of Vidal, which Mazzoleni deemed intentional, however, substitute Calaio stepped up in the absence of Gilardino, who he had replaced minutes earlier, and struck a weak shot to the left of Buffon who barely had to extend himself to keep out.
With it looking as though the Grifone would be ending the match with a point but a feeling of ‘what could have been’ their fans were set for even greater disappointment as, with just two minutes of normal time remaining, Pirlo stepped up to curl a brilliant free kick over the wall from 20 yards past the helpless Perin and continue their record breaking run of scoring in what is now 41 consecutive matches.
Follow Kevin Pogorzelski on Twitter: @rabbitrabbiton
