Juventus vs. Verona: Winners and Losers from Serie A
Juventus continued their recent excellent form with a 3-0 win over Hellas Verona on Wednesday as Serie A got underway in 2016.
A fast start from the home side saw them open the scoring from Paulo Dybala's curling free-kick, though there was certainly an element of fortune in the set piece being awarded in the first place. Juve's dominance bore further fruit just before half-time, as another Dybala set piece was delivered to the head of Leonardo Bonucci, who crashed in a header. The second half was much slower and saw fewer chances, but sub Simone Zaza injected a little pace toward the end and sealed the win with a late strike.
Here are our biggest winners and losers from the match in Turin.
Winner: Alex Sandro
1 of 5
Free to roam forward at pace and into space in Juventus' 3-5-2 system, Alex Sandro was the big early outlet for his side, and his delivery on the run was near unstoppable.
Twice he crossed superbly for the home forwards to attack, and even in shorter passing and build-up play, the Brazilian was impressive and creative, opening up Verona's defence with quick balls into feet.
Defensively he wasn't exactly tested non-stop but still did his work diligently and was always prepared to work tirelessly in both directions down Juve's left side.
Loser: Alvaro Morata
2 of 5
Given a start with Mario Mandzukic rested, Alvaro Morata toiled in attack and looked well off the pace, failing with his first touch at times and never looking capable of beating his defender one-on-one.
Morata missed a few opportunities to get early shots away but more concerning was his lack of self-belief in dribbling and in making the runs into scoring positions, instead looking to play safe.
It wasn't a surprise when he was subbed—and worse for the Spaniard, his replacement, Simone Zaza, netted the killer third goal.
Winner: Paulo Dybala
3 of 5
Argentinian forward Paulo Dybala was in exceptional form in the first half, scoring early on with a terrific free-kick inside the near post and then setting up the second with an equally impressive delivery just before the break.
Aside from his set pieces, Dybala was effective in running forward with the ball, taking on his man and spreading play to both channels, keeping Juve's attacking tempo up and always allowing the counter-attack to be an effective route toward Verona's penalty box.
Dybala wasn't so much of a goal threat in the second half, but his approach play and footwork were impressive throughout.
Loser: Luigi Delneri
4 of 5
It's now 18 league games this season and Hellas Verona have zero wins—that's the scale of the job facing new manager Luigi Delneri, appointed at the start of December and not exactly having made a great start to life at the club so far.
Verona are eight points from safety and have scored only 12 goals all season. There was precious little fight in the players once they went an early goal down to Juve—it was rather as if they were more concerned with not getting hammered or having to put in a big shift simply to delay the inevitable.
The next game, against Palermo, is surely a must-win before they face a difficult fixture against AS Roma.
Winner: Paul Pogba
5 of 5
French midfielder Paul Pogba didn't get himself on the scoresheet against Verona, but he was heavily involved in lots of Juve's best build-up play, working the left channel in impressive fashion and showing some immaculate dribbling and footwork.
Whether by quick sidesteps or powerful surges through the centre, Verona's midfielders couldn't get close to him, and he won a succession of free-kicks.
His through pass for Zaza's late goal was a deserved piece of end product after another good game.
