Serie A: Juventus struggles to maintain unbeaten streak in 3-1 victory over Cagliari

Paulo Dybala scored 44 seconds into the match but were far from being ruthless and were made to work in the 3-1 win over Cagliari in Serie A on Saturday.

The victory helped the defending champions extend their unbeaten streak to 11 matches and stay six points clear of Inter Milan and Napoli, both are on 25 points but the former is second on goal difference after 11 round of matches. Juventus have 31 points from the same number of matches.

Argentine Dybala gave Lady Turin a perfect start with a goal in the opening minute after he had received a pass on the edge of the penalty box. He scored with a right-footer despite slipping on his way after twisting and turning himself inside the opposition box.

 But Cagliari fought back despite going behind and after having a vociferous appeal for a penalty turned down by VAR, the Sardinians levelled in the 36^th minute through Joao Pedro, who showed great skill to control Darijo Srna’s cross before beating Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with a low thrust into the net. Szczesny was also forced into making a glorious save to deny Leonardo Pavoletti from giving Cagliari a lead with a sumptuous volley.

But two minutes later Juventus were back into the contest when Cagliari midfielder Filip Bradaric deflected Douglas Costa’s cross into his own net after Cristiano Ronaldo had hit the crossbar with his shot a minute earlier.

Also Read: Premier League: Marcus Rashford earns crucial 2-1 win for Manchester United over Bournemouth

Ronaldo failed to score but added another assist to his name having set up Juan Cuadrado in the 87^th minute. Dybala did well to find Ronaldo in a counter-attack and the Portuguese superstar ran almost half the pitch before passing the ball to the Colombian, who blasted it into the net to seal victory.

It was, however, far from a dominating win against a side 14^th in the table and Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri expressed his concern ahead of what could be a tricky week for the league champions. They play Manchester United at home in the Champions League on Wednesday before flying out to Milan.

“We struggled to score the second goal and we drifted out of the game a bit,” Allegri was quoted as saying by news agency AP. “We need to improve in defending in our half of the pitch: We think we can always score two or three goals but it’s not always like that.”

Meanwhile, Roberto Gagliardini scored twice, while Matteo Politano, Joao Mario, and Radja Nainggolan added the other goals as Inter Milan thrashed Genoa 5-0 for a seventh successive Serie A win. Napoli also routed Empoli 5-1 with Dries Mertens scoring a hat-trick, while Lorenzo Insigne and Arkadiusz Milik added the other two goals.