VAR Denies Ronaldo Dramatic Winner In Serie A Opener
23 August, 2021
Cristiano Ronaldo was denied a late winner by the Video Assistant Referee as Juventus began the new Serie A season with a point against Udinese.
Serie A
Result: Udinese 2-2 Juventus
Date: 22 August 2021
Venue: Friuli Stadium
Returning Bianconeri manager Massimiliano Allegri fueled speculation of Cristiano Ronaldo eyeing a move away from the club after naming him on the bench, with Paulo Dybala and Alvaro Morata spearheading the attack.
The Old Lady had a dream start after Dybala opened the scoring in the third minute with a sweeping strike from close range after a cut-back by Rodrigo Bentancur.
The visitors were oozing confidence and Juan Cuadrado doubled their lead in the 23rd minute after latching onto a long through ball by Dybala on the right flank, beat his marker and drilled a strike into the bottom corner.
Allegri's charges were in control of the contest in the closing phase of the first stanza, absorbing the pressure and setting themselves up for chances on counter-attacks but Udinese lacked the quality to break them down and the Old Lady took a comfortable 2-0 lead to the half-time interval.
Udinese were fired up coming from the break and they were awarded a penalty five minutes inside the second stanza after shot-stopper Wojciech Szczesny brought down Tolgay Arslan inside the box and Roberto Pereyra made no mistake from the spot-kick, sending Szczesny the wrong way, 1-2.
In response, Allegri made a triple change on the hour-mark, as Giorgio Chiellini replaced Aaron Ramsey in a tactical move while both Ronaldo and Dejan Kulusevski came on for Morata and Federico Bernardeschi for fresh legs in attack.
Juventus started to put Udinese under pressure and Bentancur came close to restoring their two-goal cushion six minutes later with a curling strike from the edge of the box that came off the post.
The game was unable to flow in the last 20 minutes, with both sides breaking down the attacks on either end quite quickly, with the rush for the decisive goal evident.
Udinese got back into the game in the last seven minutes after Szczesny succumbed to a pressure by Stefano Okaka trying to play the ball from the back and Okaka won possession, played a cut-back to Gerard Deulofeu, who had an easy task of tapping into a gaping net, 2-2.
The game was on the edge in the dying minutes, with the hosts having the momentum but Dybala almost snatched the winner for Juventus in stoppages with a curling strike that produced a great save from goalkeeper Marco Silvestri.
Ronaldo thought he had netted the winner for Bianconeri deep in stoppage time with a towering header at the back post from Federico Chiesa's cross but the goal was disallowed by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for a marginal offside and the sides shared the spoils.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za