Staff Reporter.
Juan Cuadrado scored a late penalty to keep Juventus’ hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive with a dramatic victory over Inter Milan after playing with 10 men for 35 minutes.
The referee awarded two first-half penalties following VAR reviews, before sending off Juve’s Rodrigo Bentancur and Inter’s Marcelo Brozovic later.
Giorgio Chiellini’s own goal to take it to 2-2 was also reviewed by VAR, before Cuadrado won and scored a penalty to put Juve two points above Napoli in Serie A.
Fifth-placed Napoli travel to Fiorentina on Sunday (11:30 BST) and can regain fourth place going into the final matchweek.
Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring from the spot for Juve, whose league crown was taken off them by Inter this month.
Romelu Lukaku made it 1-1 at the other end with another penalty before Cuadrado’s thumping strike deflected in for Juve’s second just before the break.
Bentancur’s second yellow card meant Juve went down to 10 men and manager Andrea Pirlo brought off star man Ronaldo with over 20 minutes to play.
Chiellini thought he was tugged by Lukaku as he poked in an own goal to make it 2-2 but the referee showed him a yellow card for holding the Belgian following a VAR review.
Just as Juve thought their Champions League qualification hopes had taken a huge blow, Ivan Perisic was deemed to have clipped Cuadrado in the box.
The Colombian stepped up to score the winning penalty before Inter’s Brozovic was shown a second yellow for a late challenge on the match-winner.
“It was a difficult game against a great team like Inter. Even with a man down, we had to get the job done, make sacrifices, and I think that we got the result as a team,” Cuadrado told Sky Italia.
Champions League qualification remains out of Juventus’ hands and their final game of the season is against Bologna on Sunday, 23 May.
“Winning was important to still have hope. We had an obligation to carry out our objective and we managed to win, despite some difficulties,” Pirlo told Sky Italia.
“We would not be talking about a fight for fourth place if we had always had the same determination as in the last few games.
“But when you are playing for fourth place on the last day of the season it means that something is missing: we lost too many points, especially in games that were easier on paper.”