A comfortable 3-0 win over Lazio on Wednesday evening brought Juventus to the brink of another Serie A title, as the Bianconeri are now a mere four points away from clinching what would be a remarkable fifth consecutive Scudetto.

Having promised so much in the early part of 2015/16, challenges from AS Roma, Napoli and Inter Milan each crumbled, leaving the rest of Italian football’s top flight already looking ahead to next season.

Yet having been eliminated from the Champions League by Bayern Munich last month, the same is true for Juventus. Much to the dismay of their domestic rivals, the Turin-based side are hoping the future brings an even greater level of success, as coach Massimiliano Allegri explained shortly after their latest victory. OptaPaola provided an impressive Juventus stats:

“We made an impressive comeback in Serie A to win after that bad start, but we can still do even better,” the former Milan boss told Mediaset Premium (h/t Football Italia), also taking time to publicly ask the club to keep his current group of players together next term.

“We must confirm this squad, because it’s a young group and we want to do well in the Champions League,” Allegri said in that aforementioned interview. “Our exit this time was rather hard to swallow.”

Chief among those the 48-year-old will hope to see remain in the Old Lady’s famous black and white stripes are Paul Pogba and Paulo Dybala. Both have enjoyed excellent campaigns, and the duo were fundamental to the win against a Lazio side who never really threatened to turn this match into a genuine contest.

Their goalkeeper Federico Marchetti had already denied the Juve pair on a number of occasions in an open first half, but a 39th-minute corner would finally break his resistance. Pogba chested down a good ball from Hernanes at the far post, in turn firing it back across goal for Mario Mandzukic to prod home.

Breaking the deadlock, it marked the France international’s 10th assist of the season—equalling the league-high mark Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Miralem Pjanic (AS Roma) and Riccardo Saponara (Empoli) share—and continuing his own remarkable recent form.

Indeed, in his last six outings, Pogba has recorded four goals and five assists in all competitions, but there was no question Wednesday night belonged to Dybala as his powerful running, tenacity and skill constantly tormented Lazio.

The FourFourTwo StatsZone graphic in the tweet above highlights the scale of his impact in a match where he was simply irrepressible. Netting twice—one a penalty, one a right-footed strike from Sami Khedira’s neat pass—all six of his shots were on target while he also connected with 30 of his 34 passes—an impressive 88.2 percent success rate.

Creating one chance for a team-mate, his superb dribbling skills saw him complete four of the six take-ons he attempted, while his one interception and one block fail to accurately represent the defensive effort Dybala displayed here.

The Argentina native called it “a perfect night” in his post-match interview with Sky Italia (h/t Juventus.com), while his coach was only too happy to praise the striker as he spoke to Mediaset Premium.

“Dybala is a fine player and very intelligent,” Allegri said (h/t Football Italia). “He enjoys himself playing in almost a trequartista role, connecting the forwards to the midfield. He has very clear ideas on what he wants to do.”

The Juve boss will hope what the 22-year-old and his 23-year-old team-mate Pogba truly want is to remain at Juventus. With them playing prominent roles, La Madama can continue her domestic dominance and finally begin to enjoy tangible—and long overdue—success on the European stage.

from Bleacher Report – Front Page http://ift.tt/1WH9CO4
via IFTTT http://ift.tt/eA8V8J