The Serbian returned from a long injury and was immediately decisive for the Bianconeri. Each of his goals brings Spalletti closer to the Europe that counts, but makes negotiations for a new contract more complex.
Two three-point goals in the standings. If Juventus has made a decisive leap towards the Champions League it owes a lot to Dusan Vlahovic, who returned in the most important moment of the season to do what he has always known how to do: put the ball in the opponent’s net. In Lecce it took him a handful of seconds and it was worth a huge success. Against Verona his free kick had avoided a fall that would have been painful for morale and not just for the league table.
Then the Serbian did and undone throughout the evening. He was the most dangerous by detachment, filled the penalty area, gave support and depth to his teammates: too much so given that on a couple of occasions he let himself be caught offside by the VAR, forcing Spalletti to suffer until the final whistle because the Juventus season is full of dominated and unwonable matches and repeating it at the Via del Mare would have been football suicide.
It didn’t happen and Vlahovic can count the burden on Juventus. Brief summary for the most distracted: having injured his adductor on November 29th, the striker missed a total of 23 games (16 of the championship, practically one group) including the small calf problem after his first return. Five months during which Spalletti, who had made him the center of his attack as soon as he landed in Turin, wandered tirelessly in an attempt to find an alternative.
At the same time, the debate on the contract extension is continuing (very slowly), which is in reality a real repurchase of Vlahovic, a free agent on the market from 1 July. If it were up to Spalletti there would be no doubts, but the reality is a little more complex to decipher and the certainty is that the end of the season with goals serves both: Juventus to guarantee the Champions League that will come and the Serbian to excite potential buyers around Europe.
It’s a sweet sentence for the Bianconeri, enjoying and worrying. Current events, however, tell us how it is the attackers who make the difference in the sprint to the richest cup, the one that settles the economic and sporting balance: Roma (Malen) and Juventus (Vlahovic) have it, Milan don’t. This is also why Allegri cannot sleep peacefully.
