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Juventus player ratings vs Lazio: Cuadrado’s red card costly for Juve

By John Vaccaro

ROME, ITALY - DECEMBER 07: Manuel Lazzari of SS Lazio compete for the ball with Juan Gugillelmo Cuadrado of Juventus during the Serie A match between SS Lazio and Juventus at Stadio Olimpico on December 7, 2019 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Marco Rosi/Getty Images)
ROME, ITALY - DECEMBER 07: Manuel Lazzari of SS Lazio compete for the ball with Juan Gugillelmo Cuadrado of Juventus during the Serie A match between SS Lazio and Juventus at Stadio Olimpico on December 7, 2019 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Marco Rosi/Getty Images) /
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Juventus’ Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny saves a penalty kick during the Italian Serie A football match lazio Rome vs Juventus Turin on December 7, 2019 at the Olympic stadium in Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP) (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
Juventus’ Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny saves a penalty kick during the Italian Serie A football match lazio Rome vs Juventus Turin on December 7, 2019 at the Olympic stadium in Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP) (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images) /

Well, Juventus finally paid for over a month of poor performances.

They ended up losing by a very unflattering scoreline after making it look like they were going to claim 3 points with their play early in the match.

Juventus actually opened the scoring in the match when Cristiano Ronaldo played a beautiful pass out to the wing for Rodrigo Bentancur, who then perfectly crossed the ball into the box for Ronaldo to be able to tap it past Thomas Strakosha. Unfortunately, Lazio would answer before the half. A minute into stoppage time, Luis Alberto sent a cross into the box that Luiz Felipe headed past a helpless Wojciech Szcesny. That would send the match to halftime tied at 1.

In the second half, it was all bad news for Juve. It started with Juan Cuadrado getting a 69th minute red card for taking down a Lazio player who was on a breakaway. They didn’t take long to capitalize as Sergej Milinkovic-Savic split the defense by incredibly controlling a long ball and then beat a once again helpless Szczesny.

Then, they added one more in the 95th minute as they counter attacked after a Juve set piece where they sent their whole team up to try and get an equalizer. Szczesny saved the first attempt from Lazio’s 3-man counter, but was unable to prevent the follow up. That last goal would give Lazio the 3-1 win, bringing them within 3 points of Juve for second place in Serie A and ensuring Juve would finish the week 2 points behind Inter Milan.

GK: Wojciech Szczesny 8/10

I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a keeper play so well in a match where they allowed 3 goals.  Wojciech Szczesny was spectacular in spite of the scoreline and in spite of the complete lack of help that he got from the players in front of him.

His double save on Lazio’s penalty was incredible and then he added a save on a breakaway later in the match (but Lazio had 2 other guys there to finish the rebound). He had no chance to stop any of the 3 goals he allowed in this match and should be pretty upset with his teammates for wasting a great effort from him.

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