Serie A | Sassuolo 0-3 Juventus: David breaks drought in style
Jonathan David made up for last week’s error with a goal and assist as Juventus swept Sassuolo aside, plus Fabio Miretti and a Tarik Muharemovic own goal.
The Bianconeri caught Roma in fourth place at the weekend, despite a disappointing 1-1 draw with Lecce. Jonathan David missed a dire penalty in that game, but kept his spot with Francisco Conceicao, Lloyd Kelly, Dusan Vlahovic, Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani, Jonas Rouhi and Arek Milik injured, so Teun Koopmeiners returned in defence and Fabio Miretti stepped in. Sassuolo missed Domenico Berardi, Cristian Volpato, Filippo Romagna, Daniel Boloca and Edoardo Pieragnolo with Woyo Coulibaly at AFCON.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Kenan Yildiz robbed Sebastian Walukiewicz to really trouble Arijanet Muric with a powerful strike at the near post, Andrea Cambiaso firing the rebound onto the side-netting, then Khephren Thuram also tested the goalkeeper soon after.
Juventus took the lead with a bit of luck, as Muric was off his line and unable to scramble back when Tarik Muharemovic deflected the Pierre Kalulu cross from the right into his own net.
Weston McKennie also stung Muric’s gloves at the near post, as did Yildiz with a curler from the edge of the area.
Sassuolo lost Kristian Thorstvedt to a shoulder injury following his collision with Koopmeiners, but the siege continued with Yildiz forcing another very tough save out of Muric with a screamer from a tricky angle.
Muric denied Thuram at the near stick after a quick passing move involving David and Cambiaso, then Fabio Miretti ballooned over off balance from 12 yards on a David roll across.
Juventus finally made their dominance count when a long Michele Di Gregorio ball was knocked down and sent Miretti through, out-running two defenders to fire past the on-rushing Muric.
Moments later, Sassuolo were shaken and gave away a third. David pounced on the weak Jay Idzes back-pass and dribbled around Muric, keeping his cool to beat Sebastian Walukiewicz who had got back on the line. The entire Juventus bench ran on to celebrate with the Canadian, hitting back at rumours he had failed to bond with his teammates, as it was his first Serie A goal in 16 games.
There was nearly a fourth too after another Sassuolo error in the box, but this time David fired over the bar.
Di Gregorio finally had something to do in the last six minutes, first parrying the Nicholas Pierini free kick that bent around the wall, then the Luca Lipani cross-shot.
Sassuolo 0-3 Juventus
Muharemovic og 16 (J), Miretti 62 (J), David 63 (J)
Player statistic
| 16' | Tarik Muharemovic |
| 62' | Fabio Miretti (Assist: Jonathan David) | |||
| 63' | Jonathan David |