24 April 2017
Sunday’s convincing 4-0 win over Genoa boosted the Bianconeri’s aims of a sixth straight Scudetto title.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men now sit on 83 points, 11 above second-placed Roma, who have a game in hand.
Even if the Giallorossi win all of their next matches, eight more points for Juventus will sew up this year’s Serie A title honours.
The boy just can’t do any wrong at the moment. Following his eye-catching brace against Barcelona, Paulo Dybala got back among the goals again last night and in some style too.
A sight now familiar to the Juventus Stadium faithful, La Joya swivelled on a sixpence in a packed penalty area before unleashing an unstoppable left-footed shot into the bottom corner that was simply too precise and too powerful for Genoa keeper Eugenio Lamanna to do anything about it.
That’s seven goals in six home games now for Dybala, who’s hitting peak form at the perfect stage of the season.
He can attack. He can defend. He can score wonder goals. Mario Mandzukic did all of those last night, capping off another typically gutsy performance with a superb strike to put the Bianconeri 3-0 up at the interval.
Receiving the ball at the acutest of angles on goal, the Croatian steadied himself before smacking a stinging half-volley inside the far post – a timely reminder that, while operating admirably as a left winger for now, Mario is still and will always have a centre-forward’s killer instinct.
Over the last two weeks, Leonardo Bonucci rightly received plenty of plaudits for his part in preventing Barcelona from scoring over two legs in the Champions League quarter-finals.
On Sunday night, he demonstrated, not for the first time, how there’s far more to Leo’s game than rock-solid defending.
A confident stride out from the back and a lightning change of pace took Juve’s number 19 to within shooting distance. A flash of the right boot sent him celebrating towards the corner flag, the ball nestling into the top corner – the sort of finish any striker would have been proud of.
Stand-in captain for the night, Claudio Marchisio put in a true leader’s performance against Genoa.
Bossing the midfield battle throughout, the Little Prince played his part in Juve’s opener – knocking the ball towards goal before Ezequiel Munoz deflected it in – and he might have got his name on the scoresheet after 70 minutes in spectacular fashion, blasting a volley off the crossbar after linking up beautifully with Gonzalo Higuain on the edge of the area.
A standing ovation in the 87th minute – when being substituted for Bianconeri debutant, Rolando Mandragora – was a fitting way to end a top night’s work for Marchisio, who is showing every ounce of his mental strength in getting back to form and fitness following last year’s ACL injury.
Forza, Principino!
