Juventus gave their hopes of reaching the Champions League a boost on Saturday after a hard-fought 2-0 win at Bologna following Roma’s thumping 4-1 victory at fancied Atalanta.Goals in each half from Alvaro Morata and Juan Cuadrado ensured that Juve joined Roma at five points from the league’s top four positions.🙌 𝕁𝕌𝔸ℕ 🙌#BolognaJuve #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/uhfozfIdcZ— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) December 18, 2021 Bologna are a side that Juventus have generally dominated in recent times. However, Sinisa Mihajlovic’s team responded to going behind in a positive fashion, creating two good chances through a looping Marko Arnautovic header and an acrobatic Mattias Svanberg overhead kick. Neither opportunity bore any fruit but suitably reinvigorated the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara faithful just before the break.It has been over a year since Bologna last lost three successive matches in Serie A but they seemed to lack the cohesion in midfield and cutting edge upfront to prevent the defeat. Nicolas Domínguez had his side’s clearest sight of goal since falling behind but his 65th-minute near-post effort was beaten away by Wojciech Szczesny.Perfect timing! English legionnaires land crucial blows as Giallorossi knock Atalanta outMassimiliano Allegri’s side came away with the three points following a gritty performance at a ground which has proved tough terrain for some of Serie A’s leading sides and was enveloped in thick fog for almost the entire match.Juve sit a sobering 12 points behind champions and league leaders Inter Milan, who crushed Salernitana 5-0 on Friday, but while a title challenge is almost certainly out of the question this year a place in Europe’s top club competition is something they can fight for.SERIE A – ROUND 18FridayLazio – Genoa 3-1 (1-0)/Pedro 36, Accerbi 7, Zaccagni 81/Salernitana – Inter 0-5 (0-2)/Perisic 11, Dumfries 33, Sanchez 52, Martinez 78, Gagliardini 87/Saturday Atalanta – Roma 1-4 (1-2)/Muriel 45+1 – Abraham 1, 82, Zaniolo 27, Smalling 72/Bologna – Juventus 0-2 (0-1)/Morata 6, Cuadrado 69/22:45 Cagliari – UdineseSunday 14:30 Fiorentina – Sassuolo17:00 Spezia – Empoli20:00 Sampdoria – Venezia20:00 Torino – Hellas Verona22:45 Milan – Napoli***odds are subjec to to change
