This was the game that Juventus had to win, Milan had dropped points earlier with their draw against Catania, which meant that Juve could go just 2 points behind Milan and so this was an important victory for the Bianconeri. This was the first of two matches against Napoli as they also have to battle with the on May 2th in Rome in the Coppa Italia final. Antonio Conte used this as an opportunity to experiment a little as he went for a back three to mirror Napoli and also had the front pairing of Mirku Vucinic and Marco Borriello, and the latter didn't exactly endear himself with the fans as he has not yet scored in 7 league appearances, and that may be because of his inability to stay on his feet and his tendency to go down so easily.
The first half went by so quickly as it was fairy free- flowing, Napoli had a tragedy almost near the beginning as Cristian Maggio had to be taken off on the 25th minute, and losing an important player early on, obviously had a negative affect- for the away side at least! Napoli were able to get 7 shots but none were on target, and that was very surprising as they have one of the most famous attacking three in Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavazzi and Marek Hamsik, but tonight they didn't have any impact on the game and barely even saw any of the ball.
Juventus showed their intent which was to win the game, with their 27 shot and 9 on goal they showed their quality and determination to be taken seriously as title contenders with this stand out performance and goals by Leonardo Bonucci, Arturo Vidal and Fabio Quagliarella.
Having said that. The Old Lady did show her ugly side at times with rash tackle from Giorgio Chiellini, Stephen Litchsteiner, Claudio Marchisio and Vidal. Chiellini may have been the only one who amazingly didn't get a card and actually got Napoli's Zuniga a straight red, which I thought was a bit unfair because Chiellini does get away with so much and he did make a meal out of Zuniga's challenge, but he must keep in mind that in the big European competitions he must be careful not to foul people and expect to get away with it, because he could end uo giving away free kicks in dangerous areas and worst case scenario, he could see himself taking an early shower and leaving his teammates to play the rest of the game a man light.
A little calm and more control, and who knows, Juve could be celebrating their first Scudetto since 2003.
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