24 July 2021
Juventus kick-started their preseason fixtures in a convincing manner by defeating Cesena 3-1 at home at the Juventus Training Center on Saturday evening. De Winter, McKennie and Soule all got on the scoresheet for the Bianconeri.
The fixture officially marked the return of Massimiliano Allegri on the Juve bench for his second tenure, and he couldn’t have asked for the more perfect start. It took just five minutes for the Bianconeri to get on the scoreline when Koni De Winter blasted home with force. The proceedings were dominated by Bianconero possession, and they made it 2-0 in the 34th minute through Weston McKennie who beautifully controlled the ball before striking it into the bottom right corner. Cesena didn’t waste any time in responding with a goal of their own, as they halved the deficit two minutes later though Shpendi who fired home on the rebound after Perin made a great initial save.
Into the second half, and a bunch of changes was made by Allegri. It didn’t impact the performance of the team, as they continued to dominate. Matias Soule’ added a third goal to Juve’s tally with a great shot that took a deflection and sailed into the back of the net, leaving the goalkeeper stranded on the spot. Rafia threatened to help make it 4-1: after a series of feints, he crossed the ball to the back post for Clemenza, who just missed connecting onto it by a split second with ten minutes to go. The tempo of the game drifted off towards the end as Juventus eased to a solid win.
