Serie A | Juventus 2-1 Cagliari | Player Ratings – Yildiz shining bright in Turin

Juventus battled to a narrow 2-1 victory over Cagliari in Turin this evening, with a brace from Turkish sensation Kenan Yildiz enough to separate the two teams.

Yildiz was, of course, Football Italia’s Player of the Match.

Juventus: Perin 6, Kalulu 7, Kelly 6.5, Koopmeiners 7; McKennie 6, Locatelli 6.5, Thuram 6.5 (Miretti 6), Kostic 5 (Cambiaso 6); Yildiz 8.5, Conceicao 7, Vlahovic 6 (David 5.5)

Best Juventus player: Kenan Yildiz continues his impressive run of form to truly stamp his mark as Juventus’ best player at the moment. The Turkish forward scored twice, single-handedly carrying his team to the three points. He was a constant threat and created several chances as well as scoring.

Lowest Juventus rating: Filip Kostic – Made the mistake that led to Cagliari taking the lead before Juventus hit back immediately. Was taken off at half-time as he really struggled to make an impact even after his error.

Coach: Luciano Spalletti 6.5 – On paper, a 2-1 win over Cagliari is hardly convincing but the coach navigated a tricky fixture and came away with the win. His substitutions helped things even if something is still not quite ticking for him at Juventus.

Cagliari: Caprile 6; Zappa 6, Deiola 5.5, Luperto 5.5; Palestra 7, Adopo 6, Liteta 5.5, Folorunsho 5.5, Obert 6; Esposito 7, Borelli 6

Best Cagliari Player: Marco Palestra – The 20-year-old winger looked really dangerous on Cagliari’s right flank and picked up the assist for Esposito’s goal. He won more duels than anyone else on the pitch and made Kostic look a fool in the first half.

Lowest Cagliari rating: Sebastiano Luperto – Looked the weaker of Cagliari’s back three today and did not really look confident at all when contending with Francisco Conceicao’s relentless barrage of shots.

Coach: Fabio Pisacane 6 – There are worse results to come away from the Allianz Stadium with than a narrow loss and Cagliari stayed in the game until the very end. Pisacane utilised all his subs in hopes of a comeback but they could not quite create that moment of magic.

Relive all the action as it happened, and follow coverage of Milan vs Lazio, on our Liveblog.