Dusan Vlahovic went some way against AS Roma to repaying the faith that Juventus put in him when they decided not renew Paulo Dybala’s contract. The Serbian striker had a good game in the 1-1 Serie A draw against the Giallorossi at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday night in what was Dybala’s first visit since leaving Juve.
The two had very different displays even if the points were eventually shared.
Vlahovic shows his worth to Juventus
One of the main criticisms of Dusan Vlahovic is that he struggles to affect games on the whole but just has superb moments. There is a place in the game for strikers like that as long as the team around them can compensate for it.
Vlahovic set Juventus off on the right foot against Roma when he scored a sublime free-kick that went in off the underside of the bar within the first two minutes of the game.
Throughout the first half as Juve looked much better than usual, he looked strong on the ball and was linking with his teammates very well.
The next step for him is to grasp a game so much that there is no way back for the opposition, which was not the case against Jose Mourinho’s side.
It was still a display that repaid the faith the Juve hierarchy showed in Vlahovic when they decided to focus on making him their attacking talisman rather than paying Dybala the money he wanted to be kept at the club.
Dybala struggles for AS Roma on return to Juventus
When Dybala last played at the Allianz Stadium, it was his final game for the Bianconeri and he was already in talks to find a new club. He left the field in tears and it was clear that leaving Juve was not something he was taking lightly.
It was, therefore, perhaps a cruel twist of fate that the fixture led him to go back to the Allianz on just the third matchday of the new campaign before he has fully bedded in at Roma.
He did actually do well to provide the assist for Tammy Abraham’s equaliser in the second half, but beyond that, he struggled to get a hold of the game and it was the least cohesive that the front line of Roma has looked this season.
The Bianconeri took a risk when they decided to move away from an established star and build their project around Vlahovic, but it was the Serbian who had the better game on Saturday evening.
