03 May 2023
All the goals came in the first half as Juve collected a first win in Serie A since the opening week of April. The 2-1 win over Lecce came courtesy of goals from Leandro Paredes and Dušan Vlahović, who restored Juve's lead after the visitors had equalised from the penalty spot.
The Bianconeri came close to adding a third through Danilo in the second half, but his header struck the upright. At the other end, Wojciech Szczęsny made an important double block to maintain the advantage.
Momentarily, Juve move into second place.
THE MATCH
Straight from kick off there was no holding back between Juventus and Lecce. As early as the second minute the visitors had the ball in the net when Assan Ceesay slid in at the far post. However, VAR indicated that the Lecce striker was in an off-side position.
He wouldn’t be the only player to have his joy short-lived for the same reason.
On eight minutes Filip Kostić attempted an audacious lob on the run but couldn’t keep his effort on target. Juve continued to press, however, and Nicolò Fagioli won a free-kick after a quarter of an hour. Leandro Paredes took full advantage of a gap in the defensive wall to drive his shot into the bottom corner.
Ten minutes later the Bianconeri had the ball in the net for a second time. However, it was Fabio Miretti who was to share the same fate as Ceesay. A well-worked move with Ángel Di María pulling the strings saw Miretti run onto the ball and crack a shot in off the crossbar.
A matter of centimetres denied the teenager, adjudged to be fractionally offside, his first goal in Serie A.
On 30 minutes, Massimiliano Allegri had to make the first substitution of the match as Mattia De Sciglio was stretchered off. Juan Cuadrado took over on the right flank.
As the match flowed from one end to the other, on 37’ from a Lecce cross the ball struck the arm of Danilo inside the area. For a second match in a row, Juve had to face a penalty. For a second match in a row, Lecce had a chance to score from a spot-kick.
Ceesay this time had a chance to celebrate as he drove his penalty low into the corner. Even if he guessed correctly, Szczęsny just couldn’t reach the well-placed shot.
Only three minutes later Juve were back in front thanks to the Serbian connection. A Kostić cross was met sweetly on the half-volley by Dušan Vlahović, who smashed his shot low into the far corner.
Either side of the interval Miretti found himself in a goal-scoring position again. Before the break he flicked an effort over the bar, then with the first chance since the restart, the midfielder poked the ball wide from the edge of the six-yard box with the goal at his mercy.
Juve came close to opening a two-goal advantage through Danilo. Looking to make amends for giving away the penalty, the defender pushed forward for a corner but saw his header crash off the post.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic, however, and the Bianconeri had Szczęsny to thank for two reflex saves from point-blank headers, the first from Ceesay, the second on the rebound from Federico Baschirotto.
With just the one-goal lead, the tension remained inside the Allianz Stadium even until the final seconds of the five minutes of time added on.
At the final whistle, the Juve faithful gave a huge cheer of satisfaction - Juventus were back to winning ways in Serie A.
JUVENTUS 2-1 LECCE (HT: 2-1)
Scorers: 15′ Paredes, 37′ Ceesay (pen), 40′ Vlahovic
JUVENTUS: Szczęsny;Bremer (87′ Gatti), Bonucci, Danilo; De Sciglio (32′ Cuadrado), Fagioli, Paredes (87′ Locatelli), Miretti (72′ Pogba), Kostić; Di Maria (72′ Chiesa); Vlahović. Subs not used: Pinsoglio, Perin, Alex Sandro, Rugani, Milik, Kean, Soulé, Iling jr. Coach: Allegri.
LECCE: Falcone; Romagnoli, Baschirotto, Umtiti, Pezzella (70′ Ceccaroni); Gonzalez (59′ Di Francesco), Hjulmand (89′ Voelkerling), Maleh (59′ Blin); Banda, Ceesay (89′ Colombo), Oudin. Subs not used: Bleve, Brancolini, Tuia, Helgason, Gendrey, Cassandro. Coach: Baroni.
Referee: Fourneau
BOOKINGS: 47’ Umtiti, 55′ Paredes, 61′ Pezzella, 76′ Bremer
