17 April 2018
+6 AT THE TOP
Juve moved to six points clear of the Serie A table on Sunday evening as they beat Sampdoria 3-0 at home, whilst Napoli drew 0-0 away at Milan.
The Old Lady opened the scoring at the Allianz on the stroke of half-time, as within seconds of being substituted onto the pitch, Douglas Costa put in a sublime cross from the left with his first touch to set-up Mario Mandzukic and put Juve 1-0 up heading into the break.
In the second half, a fine passage of play in the Sampdoria box culminated in Costa delivering a cross to the back post with Benedikt Howedes launching a diving header to score his first-ever goal for Juventus. In the 75th minute Sami Khedira capped off the match with a side-footed finish, following some fine trickery from Douglas Costa to complete a hat-trick of assists for the Brazilian.
CROTONE STILL FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL
Crotone currently find themselves in 18th place in Serie A and one point behind SPAL. Since taking over in December, manager Walter Zenga has overseen four wins, three draws and 10 defeats.
Last time out the Pitagorici fell 1-0 away at Genoa when Daniel Bessa headed home in the first half to score the game’s all-important goal. In their previous home match Crotone were on the right end of a 1-0 scoreline as they beat Bologna thanks to Simy’s goal after 25 minutes.
Juventus midfielder, Rolando Mandragora is on-loan at Calabrian club, having scored two goals and completing the full 90 minutes in every game that he has played.
LAST TIME VS CROTONE
The Bianconeri won 3-0 when the two sides met earlier this season, but were made to wait until the second half as the visitors were able to hold them to a 0-0 draw until half-time.
Mandzukic got La Vecchia Signora up and running when he headed home Andrea Barzagli’s cross in the 52nd minute. Juve made it two just eight minutes later when Douglas Costa’s cross was only half-cleared out to Mattia De Sciglio who unleashed a rocket into the roof of the net to score not only his first Juventus goal, but the first goal of his career. Medhi Benatia wrapped up the game in the 71st when Miralem Pjanic’s low ball across goal found its way to the Moroccan’s feet for a tap-in.
#CROTONEJUVE MATCH STATS
- Juventus have won nine out of their last 10 away matches, keeping eight cleansheets in the process.
- The Bianconeri have picked up 53 points from the last 57 available.
- No team has scored less goals than Crotone in the last 15 minutes.
- Crotone have yet to pick up any points this season after going a goal down at home.
- Douglas Costa has the mosts assists for the Bianconeri thus far this season 10 in all competitions (nine in Serie A).
- Sami Khedira is enjoying his best ever goalscoring season after his strike against Sampdoria took his tally to eight.
- Rolando Mandragora has the most interceptions in Serie A with 74.
- Mario Mandzukic has scored in all three matches played against Crotone in Serie A, having netted against them more than any other side.
- Federico Bernardeschi played 38 times for Crotone on loan in 2013/14, scoring 12 goals.
- The first and only goal of Mattia De Sciglio's professional career to date came against Crotone in November.
