Juventus 5 - 0 Sampdoria
Sunday May 15 2016
Juventus celebrated their fifth consecutive Scudetto with a 5-0 thrashing of 10-man Sampdoria, including Paulo Dybala’s brace and a Giorgio Chiellini scorcher.
Max Allegri felt they got the party started a little early with last week’s shock 2-1 defeat to already-relegated Verona. It ended a run of 25 wins and a draw in 26 rounds. Chiellini got his first start since April 2 and Norberto Neto was again given the chance to warm up for the Coppa Italia Final in goal, but Claudio Marchisio, Sami Khedira and Martin Caceres were injured. Andrea Barzagli was playing at the centre of a three-man defence to prepare for Milan, as Leonardo Bonucci will be suspended.
Samp missed Antonio Cassano, officially due to gastroenteritis amid reports he’d been sacked following a row with directors, Emiliano Viviano, Fernando, Niklas Moisander, David Ivan and Lazaros Christodoulopoulos.
Home and away, Juve have won four of the last five meetings with Sampdoria, drawing 1-1 in Turin last season.
In the opening minute Norberto Neto got down to beat away a Ricky Alvarez volley at the near post, but that was only a warning shot.
Juve took the early lead when Paulo Dybala’s free kick found Patrice Evra for a diving header at the far post into the top corner. Several players appeared to be marginally offside, but the ball went straight to ‘Uncle Pat.’
Mario Mandzukic sprung the offside trap and was clumsily brought down by Martin Skriniar as he went for the last-ditch tackle, leading to a penalty and red card. Dybala converted for his 22nd goal in all competition, making him more prolific than Carlos Tevez in his debut Juve season.
Dybala forced a couple of tough saves from Serie A debutant goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli, including one set up by Hernanes playing his way out of defence, and Stephan Lichtsteiner’s glancing header bounced off the crossbar.
Mandzukic’s snooker shot was deflected inches wide, but after ballooning a good chance over the bar, Dybala completed his brace with a left-foot strike at the near post from outside the box.
Paul Pogba had two attempts at lobbing the goalkeeper from midfield and the second was extremely close, thumping the top of the bar.
It remained one-way traffic, as Mandzukic tried to knock down a cross for Dybala’s hat-trick and Brignoli had to parry from Chiellini on a Pogba through ball.
Pogba drilled wide, but Chiellini got in on the celebrations with a scorching half-volley from the edge of the box on a deflected corner. He nearly broke the net in the near top corner, what a way to mark his comeback.
Ricky Alvarez tried to curl in directly from the corner flag, but Neto did just enough to keep it out.
Even Leo Bonucci got in on the act, tapping in from four yards after Alvaro Morata nodded on a corner.
Juventus: Neto; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Pereyra (Sturaro 65), Hernanes, Pogba, Evra; Mandzukic (Zaza 75), Dybala (Morata 67)
Sampdoria: Brignoli; Diakite, Silvestre, Skriniar; Sala (Ranocchia 55), Krsticic, Barreto, Dodo; Alvarez, Correa (Soriano 75), Quagliarella (Ponce 87)
Goals: Evra 5 (J), Dybala pen 15, 37 (J), Chiellini 77 (J), Bonucci 86 (J)
Ref: Gavillucci
Sent off: Skriniar 15 (S)
