Juventus player ratings vs Chievo Verona: Douglas and Dybala deliver win

Juventus' Brazilian forward Douglas Costa celebrates after opening the scoring during the Italian Serie A football match Juventus vs Chievo Verona on January 21, 2019 at the Juventus stadium in Turin. (Photo by Loris Roselli/NurPhoto via Getty Images).
Juventus' Brazilian forward Douglas Costa celebrates after opening the scoring during the Italian Serie A football match Juventus vs Chievo Verona on January 21, 2019 at the Juventus stadium in Turin. (Photo by Loris Roselli/NurPhoto via Getty Images). /
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ALLIANZ STADIUM, TORINO, ITALY – 2019/01/21: Players of Juventus FC celebrate at the end of the Serie A football match between Juventus Fc and Ac Chievo Verona. Juventus Fc wins 3-0 over Ac Chievo Verona. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images)
ALLIANZ STADIUM, TORINO, ITALY – 2019/01/21: Players of Juventus FC celebrate at the end of the Serie A football match between Juventus Fc and Ac Chievo Verona. Juventus Fc wins 3-0 over Ac Chievo Verona. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images) /

Well that went much more smoothly for Juventus than the season opener.

Juventus was in control of the match from the start. They played a 4-4-2 formation which allowed Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala to play together up front while Federico Bernardeschi and Douglas Costa took over on the outside. This decision paid off quickly.

Dybala played a ball wide to Costa in the 13th minute and Costa took that ball and made a run through the Chievo defense until he unleashed a shot from outside the box that easily beat Stefano Sorrentino. That wouldn’t be the end of Juve’s success in the first half.

In the 45th minute it was once again Dybala assisting a teammate for their first goal of the season. This time he played Emre Can into space in the box and Can turned and fired past Sorrentino. Juve would hold the 2-0 lead into the second half.

In the second half Juve was awarded a controversial penalty, but Cristiano Ronaldo was stopped by Sorrentino. However, they would eventually get a 3rd goal. Bernardeschi stepped up to take a free kick from the wing and whipped the ball into the box where it was met by the head of Daniele Rugani who would get Juventus the final goal of a 3-0 win.

GK: Mattia Perin 7.5/10

Wojciech Szczesny was given the day off against Chievo and Mattia Perin did a great job filling in for him. He made 3 saves en route to his 4th clean sheet in 5 matches, including saving a header from close range. He’ll still be stuck on the bench for the foreseeable future, but his consistently mistake-free performances should give Juventus fans a ton of hope for the future.