Cristiano Ronaldo and Leonardo Bonucci yesterday apologised to Juventus fans for the “worst” performance of the season as the Italian champions’ fell to their first Serie A defeat this term against lowly Fiorentina.
The ‘Bianconeri’ played most of the match a man down after Juan Cuadrado was sent off after quarter of an hour in their Allianz Stadium, losing 3-0 to the Tuscany side who are 15th after ending an eight-match winless run. “The worst Juventus of this first part of the season. I apologise to the fans in my name, first of all. There is nothing to add,” defender Bonucci wrote on Instagram.
Ronaldo blasted “a far from acceptable result” as the Portuguese star failed to add to his Serie A-leading tally of 12 league goals so far. “Yesterday, with a poor performance and a far from acceptable result we closed our scheduled games for 2020, a special year in many ways,” said the five-time Ballon d’Or winner on Instagram.
“Empty stadiums, Covid protocols, postponed games, long stoppages and a very tight calendar. But this is no excuse for anything. We know that we have to give more of ourselves, in order to play better and to win in a more consistent way. We are Juventus! And we simply cannot accept anything less than excellence on the pitch!  I hope this short stoppage may help us to come back stronger and more united than ever, because the season is still far from over and in the end we believe that we will, once again, celebrate with our fans. Believe in us, trust our team as much as we trust you, and we will deliver! Fino Alla Fine!”
The defeat came hours after the nine-time reigning Serie A champions learned they must play the match against Napoli which was cancelled on October 4 after the southerners decided not to travel to Turin because of coronavirus cases.
Napoli won their appeal to the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) after being handed a 3-0 defeat and a one-point deduction. As a result Juventus, who had started the day with 27 points, finished it with 24. Juventus are fourth in Serie A, equal on points with Napoli and Roma, and seven points adrift of AC Milan, with the three playing their final game before Christmas late last night.
Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus have won just six of their 13 league games this season, with six draws and one defeat. They next play at home against Udinese on January 3.
“It’s not a problem for us to play the Napoli game, but it seems unfair on the other teams who travelled, and perhaps lost points, with absences due to Covid,” said Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo.
“I’m more sorry for them than for us. What happened in the afternoon, however, must not be an excuse for the defeat. We started with the wrong attitude. When you start like this then you get into trouble, which we did. Unfortunately, before Christmas it happens that your head is on holidays, we shouldn’t have allowed this.”
The champions got off to a terrible start in their Allianz Stadium with Fiorentina’s Franck Ribery setting up Dusan Vlahovic for the opener after just three minutes. The Serb shook off Matthijs de Ligt to slot in past an out-rushing Wojciech Szczesny for his third goal in as many games.
Juventus played most of the match a man down after Cuadrado was sent off on 17 minutes for a reckless sliding tackle on Gaetano Castrovilli. The referee’s yellow card turned to red after a VAR viewing.
Not even Ronaldo could make the difference for the hosts. The Portuguese missed chances in the first half and a header on target after the break was ruled offside. Juventus also had penalty appeals on Ronaldo and Federico Bernardeschi tackles rejected. “Cuadrado’s sending off is clear, there could be other episodes for us but I don’t want to comment, everyone sees them,” added Pirlo.
Fiorentina doubled the lead after 76 minutes with the ball bouncing off Juventus defender Alex Sandro and into the goal. Martine Caceres turned in a Cristiano Biraghi cross from close range five minutes later.
Fiorentina’s second win of the season, and first since October 25, moved the Tuscany side up to 15th position. “I asked the team for courage and we succeeded,” said coach Cesare Prandelli after his first win since taking over last month. We decided this was the time to take a risk. It’s an extraordinary win, now we need to work on our consistency.”
Earlier Brazilian Junior Messias scored a brace to move promoted Crotone off the bottom of the table with a 2-1 win over Parma.