Kulusevski returns to the Tardini to lead Juventus past Parma

Date: 19th December 2020 at 10:33pm
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Dejan Kulusevski returned to haunt his former club Parma on Saturday evening as he opened the scoring in Juventus’ 4-0 win at the Stadio Ennio Tardini.

The Swede, returning to the stadium where he burst onto the scene in Serie A while spending the 2019/20 season on loan from Atalanta, got the Bianconeri up and running before Cristiano Ronaldo added a second and third for the visitors, and Alvaro Morata completed the scoring late on.

While Andrea Pirlo’s side dominated the possession early on, the clearest of the early chances fell the way of the Crociati. On a typically swift counterattack, Jasmin Kurtic’s cross evaded Andreas Cornelius and fell to Juraj Kucka at the far post, but the Slovak couldn’t beat Gianluigi Buffon with his close-range effort.

Kucka was made to pay for that miss by his former teammate Kulusevski, with whom he linked so well last season, just moments later.

An Alex Sandro cross from the left went a long way across the box for Kulusevski, coming in from the right, to calmly slot back into the far bottom corner with what has become his trademark finish.

That lead was doubled within just three minutes as Juventus’ front two combined. Alvaro Morata delivered a perfect ball from the left for Cristiano Ronaldo to climb high and head past Luigi Sepe, moving on from his midweek penalty miss.

Not even five minutes of the second half were needed for Juventus to get their third and Ronaldo to claim his second. Rodrigo Bentancur won the ball back in his own half, before some quick and efficient recycling of the ball set Aaron Ramsey off towards the Parma box. The Welshman found the Portuguese No.7 who took a touch and fired across Sepe into the bottom corner.

Buffon denied another Kucka chance before Juventus had a Matthijs de Ligt goal ruled out, with the ball having gone out of play before the Dutchman turned it in.

Riccardo Gagliolo had a big chance to reduce the deficit with a quarter of an hour to play. Hernani found his full-back with a whipped ball from the right, but the Sweden international’s effort back across goal went beyond the far post.

Morata completed the scoring in the final five minutes, heading home his 10th of the season across all competitions and his fourth in Serie A.

 

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