Juventus wins coach debut at Pirlos

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World class as a player, under observation as a coach: Andrea Pirlo

Photo: MASSIMO PINCA / REUTERS

First game as coach, first victory - Andrea Pirlo celebrated a successful debut at the start of Serie A.

Against Sampdoria Genoa Juventus won 3-0 (1-0).

Dejan Kulusevski scored the opening goal in the 13th minute.

The 20-year-old Swede moved from Parma Calcio to Turin in the summer for just under 40 million euros.

Leonardo Bonucci increased after 78 minutes before Cristiano Ronaldo made it 3-0 in the 88th minute.

Pirlo does not want to be reduced to his charisma alone, tactically he had also thought about a lot for his debut.

His team started in the unusual 3-5-2, which surprisingly also included reserve defender Gianluca Frabotta and ex-Schalke Weston McKennie.

In a system with many changes of position, midfielder Aaron Ramsey acted as a liaison to the two top players, Ronaldo and Kulusevski.

The two were also instrumental in the opening goal: Ronaldo got stuck on the right corner of the penalty area, from him the ball came to his strike partner, who carefully pushed it into the far corner.

Before that, Ronaldo had already missed a chance (11th minute), in the 24th minute he hit the crossbar and ten minutes later a shot from the Portuguese went just past the right.

There was nothing to be seen of the guest team in the first half.

That should change in the second half.

After a triple change from coach Claudio Ranieri, Sampdoria came to more offensive actions.

Federico Bonazzoli missed twice in the 52nd minute.

Sampdoria around captain Albin Ekdal, who played for Hamburger SV between 2015 and 2018, was now able to make the game more balanced.

In the 70th minute, the hosts came to a conclusion - substitute Mattia De Sciglio narrowly missed the right post with a deflected shot.

The decision was made in the 78th minute: After a standard situation, the strong McKennie first missed before Bonucci scored from close range to 2-0.

Then McKennie (85th) on the one hand and Fabio Quagliarella (87th) on the other hand, before Ronaldo scored his goal - his 3-0 (88th) was also the final score.

Juventus will continue at Roma next Sunday evening, Sampdoria will receive Benevento the day before.

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