Juventus keep pressure on Inter with narrow win at Fiorentina

Fabio Miretti’s early goal gave Juventus a narrow 1-0 win away at Fiorentina at the Artemio Franchi stadium on Sunday night.

The result meant that the Old Lady kept their superb form ongoing and are now just two points behind league leaders Inter Milan.

Fiorentina, though, have now lost two home games in a row and are in a mini-slump in form.

The Old Lady came into the encounter with a clean sheet in each of their last five league games. Fiorentina, meanwhile, after a fine start to the season have lost pace recently.

The Viola lost both of their last two league games without scoring but have been unbeaten in their last four games against Juventus, drawing three and winning once.

Visitors make a bright start

The visitors started the game on the front foot, dominating possession and keeping the hosts at bay with fast interplay between them. It didn’t take long for Massimiliano Allegri’s side to break the deadlock as they went ahead in the 10th minute.

After Adrien Rabiot laid it off for Kostic on the left wing, the latter put an inviting low cross for Fabio Miretti who poked it right-footed to give his side the lead.

Fiorentina didn’t let their heads drop after conceding the early goal and were certainly the better side thereafter.

First, Nicolas Gonzalez curled a left-footed effort to test Wojciech Szczesny in Juventus goal before the Argentine once again brought out a brilliant save from the Polish custodian just minutes later with a driving effort. 

Szczesny then came up with another spectacular save just on the stroke of half-time when he denied Fiorentina captain Cristiano Biraghi from a finely taken free kick. Allegri’s side came under immense pressure from the hosts, who certainly were the better team of the half, but went into the tunnel preserving their thin lead. 

Juventus lead at break

Just six minutes after the restart, Juventus had a huge chance to make it 2-0. After the hosts lost possession in their own defensive half, Moise Kean put Federico Chiesa through, but the former Fiorentina forward saw his left-footed effort saved.

A late offside flag saved his blushes as Fiorentina survived a massive scare. The hosts then came close to getting a penalty, but VAR agreed with the on-field referring decision not to award a spot kick right at the hour mark.

Despite being in the ascendancy for most of the game, Fiorentina lacked the final ball up front and didn’t test Szczesny in the second half.

Vincenzo Italiano would certainly be disappointed with his team’s effort in front of the vociferous home crowd as they ran out on the wrong side of the scoreline on the day.

Juventus won’t mind the victory at all though, despite not in full flow, Allegri’s side picked up three crucial points away from home as they moved to 26 points from 11 games, 2 behind Inter. The Old Lady will look to build on this victory next week when they host Cagliari while Fiorentina will look to bounce back against Bologna.

Photo credit: IMAGO / Giuseppe Maffia