Juventus end losing run as Alajbegovic and Boga score from distance to sink 10-man Napoli
A half-time switch to 3-5-2 and two stunning long-range strikes helped Juventus beat a Napoli side reduced to ten men, ending a troubled run of results.
Juventus halted a worrying slide with a 2-0 win over Napoli at the Allianz Stadium, goals from Kerim Alajbegovic and Jeremie Boga either side of Luca Marianucci's dismissal settling a game both sides needed badly, Football Italia reported.
Both clubs arrived locked on 14 points. Juventus had lost three of their previous four Serie A matches, including a 2-0 defeat at Genoa last Wednesday that prompted Luciano Spalletti to send the squad into a training camp. The list of absentees was long: Nico Gonzalez, Francisco Conceicao, Zeki Celik, Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Khephren Thuram and Kamil Grabara all missed out.
Napoli travelled in better spirits after thrashing Monza 4-1, but their own squad was depleted. Rasmus Hojlund and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic were ruled out by a virus, Amir Rrahmani was short of full fitness, and Stanislav Lobotka, Benoit Badiashile, Leonardo Spinazzola, David Neres, Alisson Santos, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno were all unavailable, according to Football Italia.
Juventus created the better chances before the breakthrough
Lorenzo Lucca, handed a rare start, almost opened the scoring inside eight minutes with a diving header from Matteo Politano's cross, only for Guglielmo Vicario to palm it off the line. Juventus had their own openings too: Juan Cabal's header from a corner struck the frame of the goal, and Noa Lang and Alajbegovic both blazed over from 12 yards in the first half.
Alajbegovic was the most dangerous attacker on the pitch well before his decisive moment, drawing a smart save from Alex Meret deep into first-half stoppage time with an angled drive, though Pierre Kalulu could not convert the rebound. The volume of half-chances pointed to a game Juventus were controlling without yet finding the finish to match.
The switch to three at the back changed the picture
Spalletti reshaped his side at half-time, pushing Marianucci to right-back for Napoli while Juventus reorganised into what looked like a 3-5-2. The change coincided with Juventus wresting more control of the middle of the pitch, even as Randal Kolo Muani squandered a promising counter-attack by overhitting a pass intended for Alajbegovic.
It was from open play, not a sustained spell of pressure, that the game turned. Alajbegovic settled it in the 70th minute with a strike from the edge of the box that flew into the top corner off the far post, the kind of goal that owes more to individual execution than to any clear tactical pattern. His finish from 20 yards reflected a game in which Juventus had generated 18 shots to Napoli's seven but only four on target against Napoli's one, a gap that explains why the contest stayed level for so long despite Juventus' territorial edge.
Marianucci's red card tipped the balance further
Napoli's night worsened five minutes after falling behind. Marianucci was shown a second yellow card for stepping on Cabal's foot, reducing Napoli to ten men, and Matias Olivera limped off separately with a muscular problem. The numerical disadvantage gave Juventus more space to work the ball into the final third, and they made it count with a second goal in similar fashion to the first.
Jeremie Boga, introduced from the bench, curled a right-footed effort into the far bottom corner from outside the box in the 87th minute, assisted by Andrea Cambiaso. Like Alajbegovic's opener, it was a goal manufactured by individual quality rather than a passage of sustained build-up play, underlining how much of Juventus' attacking threat on the night came from moments rather than patterns.
Napoli finished with 51% possession to Juventus' 49%, a reminder that controlling the ball mattered less than what each side did without it. Juventus' 13 corners to Napoli's four, and their 12 fouls committed against Napoli's nine, both speak to a Napoli side pinned back for long periods, particularly after going down to ten men.
The win ends Juventus' run of poor results and comes with Napoli still searching for the consistency that eluded them for much of the autumn. Both sides had arrived level on points; this result moves the gap between them, with Napoli now facing a response after a night in which an early red card undid much of the promise shown by their win at Monza.