After a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Cagliari on Sunday evening, Juventus’ push to remain in the Serie A title race. Well maybe not the race for the Scudetto, but the Champions League spots are certainly the more realistic goal. Cagliari are again the perfect opponent for Juve to boost their confidence – 11 wins in their last 12 league encounters.Looking to right the wrongs of last week’s loss in the Derby d’Italia, favourites Juventus kicked off proceedings on the front foot. But after ten minutes – it was Cagliari who opened the scoring in style. A slick counter-attack saw Răzvan Marin pick out João Pedro on the edge of the box, and the striker side-footed the ball into the top corner.The Sardegna Arena exploded after taking the lead but the Old Lady snapped out of the shock soon. Luca Pellegrini appeared to equalize with a fizzing shot from the edge of the box – however, VAR officials spotted a handball in the build-up and annulled the goal.Inter make amends for three draws in the last four games by trashing VeronaAfter knocking on Cagliari’s door for most of the half, Juventus finally broke through. Juan Cuadrado chipped a ball to the back post for Matthijs de Ligt and the Dutchman arrowed his header back across goal and into the side-netting to equalize. It was seconds before the halftime break.In the opening minutes of the second half, De Ligt’s centre-back partner Giorgio Chiellini tried to put Juventus ahead by redirecting a shot in from close range – but VAR struck again, and ruled the goal out due to Juve’s captain being offside.Striker Dušan Vlahović finally broke down the stubborn Cagliari defence by scoring a scrappy goal from close range, despite being frustrated for most of the night. After a searching ball into the box from Paulo Dybala, the Serbian was persistent and managed to push the ball inside the opponent’s net.Although 15 minutes still remained at the time of the Bianconeri’s eventual winner, Cagliari looked incapable of preventing a fifth straight loss as they visibly ran out of ideas against a fitter visiting team.Cagliari inch ever-closer to relegation, owning what will be just a three-point overnight lead over the bottom three while Juventus still harbour hopes of sneaking a 37th Italian top-flight title from almost nowhere.SERIE A – ROUND 32SaturdayEmpoli – Spezia 0-0Inter – Verona 2-0 (2-0)/Barella 22, Dzeko 30/Cagliari – Juventus 1-2 (1-1)/Joao Pedro 10 – De Ligt 45+1, Vlahovic 75/Sunday13:30: (4.40) Genoa (3.50) Lazio (1.95)16:00: (1.80) Napoli (3.70) Fiorentina (5.00)16:00: (3.50) Sassuolo (3.60) Atalanta (2.15)16:00: (3.60) Venezia (3.25) Udinese (2.25)19:00: (1.28) Roma (6.50) Salernitana (11.0)21:45: (4.10) Torino (3.50) Milan (2.00)Monday21:45: (2.25) Bologna (3.30) Sampdoria (3.60)***odds are subject to change***
