Milan: Paulo Dybala struck a late penalty to save Juventus’s blushes in a 1-1 draw with Chievo, although they remain six points behind title rivals Roma ahead of their Champions League opener against Manchester City.
Juventus, last season’s beaten Champions League finalists, meet City in Group D tomorrow and on this showing Manuel Pellegrini’s men will fancy their chances of taking three points off the Italian champions.
Having already suffered their worst ever start to a Serie A season following defeats to Udinese and Roma, Juventus welcomed Chievo to Turin determined to take all three points, albeit with one eye on tomorrow’s fixture.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri left Juan Cuadrado, Mario Mandzukic and Paul Pogba on the bench and handed full debuts to former Inter Milan midfielder Hernanes as well as Brazilian defender Alex Sandro.
The rested trio’s presence, however, was eventually required as Juve fought back after conceding a fifth-minute opener when Perparim Hetemaj fired low past Gianluigi Buffon from outside the area.
Hernanes, impressive throughout playing just behind Dybala and Alvaro Morata, notably stung Albano Bizzarri’s gloves with a superb drive, while Leonardo Bonucci and Roberto Pereyra both missed half-chances.
After several weeks out through injury, the still rusty Claudio Marchisio was replaced by the more effective Pogba at half-time and although the later introduction of Juan Cuadrado improved Juve’s prospects further, Chievo refused to lie down.
Seven minutes after the restart Buffon did well to push Cesar’s shot on to the post. At the other end, Pogba skewed his shot wide while in space to the left of goal.
Cuadrado’s most impressive feat, however, was winning a late penalty after what appeared to be the slightest of contact with the boot of Cesar. Dybala made no mistake, smashing the ball past the goalkeeper and into the roof of the net to seal Juve’s first point of the season.AFP
