An early onslaught of goals allowed Juventus to enjoy a relatively easygoing outing in their 3-0 win over Frosinone at home, ahead of their crunch Champions League clash in midweek.
Early goals will have been just what Massimiliano Allegri was hoping for in order to allow his players to ease off on the intensity ahead of such a crucial game and he got exactly that when Paulo Dybala and Leonardo Bonucci struck inside the opening 17 minutes.
From there, the game was over as a contest, with the Bianconeri showing no signs of surrendering a home lead this time as they had against Parma recently and Cristiano Ronaldo closed out the scoring with his second half strike to make it the ideal outing prior to facing Atletico Madrid.
It took the Old Lady just six minutes to fire themselves in front when Dybala blasted a beautifully executed effort into the top corner from 25 yards, a strike that Marco Sportiello was simply no match for.
Their lead was doubled just over 10 minutes later when the oft-maligned Khedira appeared to get in on the act, showing no signs of still being dazed after Cristiano Ronaldo played target practice with his head at Sassuolo, when he used that same body part to bundle the ball in following a goalmouth scramble, although a late toe from Bonucci was credited as being the final touch and saw the defender pip his colleague to the goal.
The closest either side came to a goal before the interval both came via free-kicks, with Ronaldo firing one over and out at one end, while Camillo Ciano whipped one inches wide of the postage stamp at the other end.
Khedira attempted to right his first half wrong when he fired at Sportiello after the break but the goalkeeper was beaten for a third time on 63 minutes when Ronaldo netted with his final touch before being substituted by rifling home low at the near post following a Mario Mandzukic pass.
A fourth was almost added in the final quarter but the ex-Atalanta goalkeeper got an impressively strong hand to Federico Bernardechi’s scorching strike and keep the score at three.
YOU COULDN’T LET HIM HAVE IT?
Even after repeated viewings, it was hard to tell who got the final touch for Juve’s second goal. However, one image did appear to show Bonucci literally stealing the ball off his teammate’s head with a last gasp foot to grab the goal out of the German’s pocket. His celebration showed just how determined he was not to have the goal taken from him.
AN IMPRESSIVE CLUB
Bonucci’s goal ultimately meant that he helped himself to an impressive record with his second of the campaign (having also netted against Napoli) as he became one of just five defenders in Europe’s major leagues to score two goals in each of the past six seasons. The others are Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Gerard Pique and Laurent Koscielny.
