Keep up to date with all the latest from around the world on social media as Juventus have won the 2015-2016 Serie A title!
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Roma beat second place Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico, mathematically clinching the title for Juventus.
The Old Lady have reached their club record of 5 straight Scudetti that they achieved last in the 1930s.
This season started off in disastrous form with Juventus at one point being 9 points behind the league leaders, and a culmination of early injuries, the departures and arrivals of the summer transfer window. Since their last loss in October 2015 away against Sassuolo, the Bianconeri have accrued 73 points out of a possible 75, a Serie A record.
Gianluigi Buffon was instrumental this season with an overall performance that some call “the best of his career yet”. At 38 years of age, there’s no indication of him slowing down. He also set another all time Serie A record with the most minutes unbeaten by a goalkeeper with 973 minutes of invincibility.
Paulo Dybala up until this point had scored 20 goals, an incredible number that beats Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s total during his first season with Juventus. Sami Khedira, another new signing, battled injuries but while he was on the pitch Juventus never lost a game.
Despite injuries to Giorgio Chiellini and Claudio Marchisio, the Old Lady kept trucking. Winning 24 out of their last 25 games abundantly demonstrates this.
Dybala – 32 games played in Serie A, 16 goals scored.
Mandzukic – 25 games played in Serie A, 10 goals scored.
Pogba – 33 games played in Serie A, 8 goals scored.
Morata – 32 games played in Serie A, 7 goals scored.
Khedira – 20 games played in Serie A, 5 goals scored.
Stay tuned with our Scudetto clinching coverage on Italian Football Daily
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“We were pefect, we played a great game against Juventus that for the first time was put under difficulty in a few aspects. This is the right track, we have to play like this and take the positive things from this match. I’m said to see the fans jeering us after a game played against a Juventus like this. They already expected the result, but we gave our all and we certainly deserved more. The aggravated fans? In regards to results, they are right, we haven’t been going well, but for how we played tonight we didn’t deserve what they said to us at the end of the game. We started off very well at the beginning of the year, even we expected a different ending in terms of results, but in a few situations we were unfortunate. I can say that this is the best the squad could’ve done. Certainly we’ve had a mental decline more than physical, but we didn’t feel that this decline was the coach’s fault because we’re the ones who go on the field and play.”
Fiorentina have been in disastrous form in the past month and have only won once in the past 9 Serie A matches.
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The win for Juventus puts them one step closer to their fifth straight Scudetto as they beat Fiorentina 2-1 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Goals from Mario Mandžukić, his fourth in his last five games, and Álvaro Morata saw the Bianconeri show their clinical nature, but Paulo Sousa and Fiorentina will be wondering about what could have been.
Juventus were without a lot of players due to injury, including Roberto Pereyra, Claudio Marchisio and Giorgio Chiellini, and that led to Daniele Rugani retaining his place in the back three while Mario Lemina came in alongside Sami Khedira and Paul Pogba. For Fiorentina, they were without Matías Vecino and Khouma Babacar. That meant that Nikola Kalinić went unchallenged in his role up top, while Borja Valero moved back into the midfield and Cristian Tello played in the two behind the striker with Josip Iličić.
The first half saw Fiorentina control a lot of the ball, but also saw Juventus counter excellently. La Vecchia Signora scored in the 39th minute through Mario Mandžukić, though Fiorentina had two chances in which they, perhaps, should have got a goal. Federico Bernardeschi got in behind the Juventus defence and beat Gianluigi Buffon to put La Viola 1-0 ahead, but it was called back for offside. Replays afterwards showed that Patrice Evra was playing the 22-year-old onside. Nineteen minutes later, Juventus went 1-0 ahead. Paulo Dybala came short to get the ball and that allowed the midfielders to push on. Sami Khedira then played a ball to the back post which Paul Pogba headed down and Mario Mandžukić excellently volleyed past Ciprian Tătărușanu to put the Bianconeri ahead. Then, just before half-time, Marcos Alonso was brought down in the box after Daniele Rugani pulled on his shirt during Bernardeschi’s corner. Two decisions that went against Fiorentina, but Juventus were clinical with theirs – and they had another ruled out for offside, although this decision by the officials was correct.
Eight minutes after half-time, Josip Iličić had to go off with an injury and that really dried up a lot of Fiorentina’s creativity. Not too much happened until 81st minute, with Daniele Rugani yellow card – his first in Serie A after 53 appearances – in the 72nd minute being the most notable event. With nine minutes from time, though, Nikola Kalinić equalised. After Leonardo Bonucci was caught playing on the ball, Borja Valero dispossessed the 28-year-old and passed to Kalinić who then curled a shot into the corner of Buffon’s net. Then, one minute and 45 seconds later, Juventus re-took the lead through substitute Álvaro Morata. Mandžukić headed back Pogba’s corner and Patrice Evra was there to shoot at goal but his shot was blocked and the ball fell to Morata who poked home. It typified the response of champions. The drama wasn’t finished there. Kalinić beat substitute Juan Cuadrado, ran into the box and then went down under minimal contact to deceive the referee into giving a penalty. Karma, however, prevailed as the Croatian had his penalty saved, and then Buffon saved the rebound from Bernardeschi. In the final seconds, Fiorentina then hit the post with Kalinić again being involved as his header crashed against the crossbar, despite his best efforts to arc his back and head it goalwards.
Juventus will come away from the game knowing that their job is done. Juventus knew that a win in Florence would mean a loss for Napoli in their game against Roma on Monday would secure a fifth straight Scudetto title; the first time that Juventus have achieved that feat since the 1934/35 season. Allegri again showed that he is one of the best in the business when it comes to bringing on the right player and Álvaro Morata’s winner typified that. Morata’s goal means that the Spaniard has now scored or assisted seven goals in his last six appearances with three goals and four assists. Fiorentina and Paulo Sousa will ultimately feel like they should have picked up at least a point; Bernardeschi’s goal, Kalinić’s penalty and then Kalinić hitting the bar in the 93rd minute will leave Viola fans wondering about what could have been.
Next up for Fiorentina is a trip to in-form Chievo, though they lost 1-0 to Atalanta earlier in the day. After a run in which they have won just one of their last 10, a promising season has sizzled out and La Viola now face a battle to retain their 5th place position, let alone push for 4th. For Juventus, they will have the visit of Carpi to the J Stadium, but Bianconeri eyes will be transfixed on the Roma-Napoli game on Monday afternoon as they could go into the game next Sunday as champions. Considering that Juventus were 12th on October 28, the way in which they have come back and obliterated the rest of Serie A has been very impressive and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Their fifth straight Scudetto title looks imminent.
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This is how we rated the Juventus players in their match against Fiorentina.
Goalkeeper
Buffon (9) – Had a little more to do in this match and handled the majority of it. Was let out to dry on the lone viola goal, but kept Juve in the lead with a penalty save.
Defense
Barzagli (7.5) – Controlled a strong Fiorentina attack well and did not make many mistakes.
Bonucci (6.5) – His giveaway led to Fiorentina’s equalizer, but was well controlled other than that. Had a few good clearances to keep la viola out.
Rugani (7.5) – The young defender continues to stay composed and alert in defense. Has been very impressive while cast in for Chiellini recently and has a very bring future with il bianconeri.
Midfield
Litchsteiner (7.0) – Got up and down the right side well and had some great crosses. He was able to get back and defend when needed, as well.
Khedira (7.5) – Has been great getting up into attack and patrolling the midfield. His pass into the box led to Juve’s first goal.
Lemina (7.5) – The young Marseille loanee is trying to earn a spot with the bianconeri and doing great work of it. He controlled the midfield playing for the injured Marchisio.
Pogba (8.0) – Providing his league leading 11th assist of the season on Mandzukic’s goal and made some impressive highlights with his dribbling.
Evra (7.0) – Found the shot that rebounded off of Tatarasanu and fell to Alvaro Morata who put it in for the eventual match winner.
Forwards
Mandzukic (7.5) – Opened the scoring and looked dangerous in attack.
Dybala (7.0) – Wasn’t able to find a goal, but he looked dangerous with a shot nearly hitting the crossbar. The young Argentine worked very hard to keep possession and has been able to get back deep into the midfield, as well.
Substitutes
Morata (7.5) – Came in for Dybala with twenty minutes left and was in position for the game winner scoring from a rebound in the 83rd minute.
Asamoah (N/A) – Was not on the pitch long enough to accurately rate his performance.
Cuadrado (N/A) – Was not on the pitch long enough to accurately rate his performance.
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“It was important to win on a pitch where others don’t do well. We won thanks to a player who isn’t a human being, saving the penalty. We hope to win the Scudetto next.”
You guys reacted quickly
“Fiorentina is a great team, we’re very strong and and when we play like that until the end it’s difficult to beat us”.
“It’s nice to score with the Bianconeri shit on, now we have to think about winning the Scudetto”
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Everybody knew that tonight’s match was going to be a dogfight to the end, and at the final whistle, the team who has been setting records this season take 3 points home on what could be the title winning weekend.
The match started off in a barnstorming fashion with Juventus and Fiorentina both looking for the first blow. However, this match wasn’t by any means controversy-free as in the first half both Khedira and Bernardeschi both had goals waved offside respectively. The Bernardeschi call is a question of millimeters, and that’s not an exaggeration.
In the late going of the first half, Dybala crossed into the box from the right hand side to meet the oncoming Paul Pogba who headed down to Mario Mandzukic for the opener. The Croatian fired home a one touch bullet into the bottom left corner of the net, leaving Tataranasu completely exposed and giving Juventus the lead.
The Pogba show continued throughout the match with individual pieces of skill that you will see all over the internet the next couple of days, but he did however miss a chance to give Juventus a 2-0 lead, which in the end could’ve cost the Old Lady all three points.
In the second half, Leonardo Bonucci made a dribbling mistake that will remind him of his old self from about 5 years ago, Nikola Kalinic was there and he fired home a curling effort past Gianluigi Buffon from about 18 yards out. It was game on with Fiorentina gunning for all three points. However within a few minutes, Juventus earned a corner that was headed back across the face of goal, deflected and fell directly into the path of Alvaro Morata for the go-ahead goal for the Bianconeri.
In the 88th minute, the freshly-entered Juan Cuadrado drug down Nikola Kalinic in the box for a penalty, which in itself will cause some controversy but especially given that it was a soft, late called penalty. Kalinic decided to take the penalty, but in a miraculous dive, Buffon stopped the penalty and saved the rebound shot by Bernardeschi.
Juventus’ players celebrate at the end of the Italian Serie A football match Fiorentina vs Juventus on April 24, 2016 at the Artemio Franchi stadium in Florence.
Juventus claimed yet another win in Florence and depending on the Roma-Napoli game tomorrow, could lift the Scudetto before next weekend’s match at the Juventus Stadium.
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