Serie A: Juventus’ winless streak ends with victory over Fiorentina

Juventus ended a three-game winless streak in Serie A on Saturday with a 1-0 victory against 10-man Fiorentina due to a stoppage-time goal by Juan Cuadrado.

Apart from the goal, Juventus’ game continued to struggle.

Juventus were not able to register a single shot on target until just before Cuadrado’s heroics although the team did manage to hit the crossbar and have a goal ruled out for offside.

Those chances only came after Fiorentina defender Nikola Milenković was sent off in the 73rd minute following two yellow cards in quick succession.

Juventus moved level on points with seventh-placed Fiorentina on the Serie A table that they once used to absolutely dominate. As things stand, The Old Lady is 13 points behind Serie A leaders AC Milan and Napoli ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures. Milan plays Inter Milan in a derby match on Sunday, shortly after Napoli hosts Hellas Verona.

Fifth-place Atalanta was playing last-place Cagliari later.

Ironically, Juventus still have been able to maintain a perfect record in the Champions League, but they started this game on the back of consecutive defeats in Serie A. The team was without their starting defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini. While Bonucci had been already ruled out, the Turin club lost Chiellini to injury in the warmup.

Neither side had a glimpse of goal in a mediocre first half in Turin, but Juventus almost scored a stunning opener shortly after the break as Álvaro Morata chested down a ball and then hooked it over Milenković before volleying it just past the left post.

Milenković was booked in the 66th minute for bringing down Weston McKennie and he was shown a second yellow card and sent off seven minutes later for a foul on Federico Chiesa.

That appeared to spark Juventus into life as Chiesa hit the bar shortly after with a powerful shot from a tight angle before Morata had a goal ruled out for offside.

Juventus finally had its first shot on target in the 86th minute of the game but Fiorentina goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano did well to parry a shot from Chiesa — who joined Juventus on loan from Fiorentina last year.

And it was another former Fiorentina player who won the match for Juventus as Cuadrado got to the byline past Cristiano Biraghi on the right side of the area before placing an angled shot into the net between Terracciano and the near post.

(With AP inputs)