Jittery Juve held at Sassuolo, Lazio's unhappy run continues

Having taken two points from its last three games, Juventus is on 77 points, seven ahead of Atalanta, which last thumped Brescia with five matches to go.

Published : Jul 16, 2020 04:00 IST

Sassuolo's Filip Djuricic celebrates with teammate Francesco Caputo at the Mapei stadium.

Cristiano Ronaldo's run of scoring in six league games ended as jittery Juventus was held to a 3-3 draw at Sassuolo on Wednesday and missed the chance to go nine points clear at the top of Serie A.

Having taken two points from its last three games, Juventus is on 77 points, seven ahead of Atalanta, which thumped Brescia 6-2 on Tuesday, with five matches remaining.

Defender Danilo opened the scoring for Juventus in the sixth minute when a corner found him unmarked on the edge of the box, and he drilled a powerful shot through a cluster of bodies into the net.

Gonzalo Higuain made it two six minutes later, latching on to a superb ball from Miralem Pjanic, but a shot into the top corner by Filip Djuricic in the 29th minute signalled the start of a spirited fightback by the home side.

As it happened

It levelled six minutes into the second half when Domenico Berardi curled a beautiful free kick in at the near post, and Sassuolo went ahead three minutes later as Francesco Caputo stole in at the far post to steer in a wayward Berardi shot.

Ronaldo's best effort was an attempted lob in the first half that landed just wide, but he was well-shackled by the Sassuolo defence.

Instead it fell to left back Alex Sandro to produce a rare goal, meeting a 64th-minute corner with a bullet header to level the scores.

Chasing its ninth league title in a row, Juventus poured the pressure on but could not force a winner.

Instead, Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had to make a superb save to keep out a dipping shot from Mehdi Bourabia in stoppage time as it hung on for a draw.

Post saves lacklustre Lazio

Lazio's unhappy run continued with a lacklustre 0-0 draw at Udinese, although it at least avoided a fourth successive Serie A defeat thanks to goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha and the post which denied Rodrigo De Paul a late winner.

Apart from the point, there was little for coach Simone Inzaghi to cheer after another tired, uninspired display by his side whose title challenge has petered out in the last month.

Barrow seals point for Bologna

Gambia striker Musa Barrow netted an equaliser 10 minutes from fulltime as unlucky Bologna held Napoli to a 1-1 home draw at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on Wednesday.

Barrow scored his fifth goal in the last six games to earn his side a deserved point in a game in which it also had two goals ruled out by VAR for marginal offside decisions.

Kostas Manolas netted an early goal for Napoli, which move to 53 points from 33 games, realistically out of the running for the Champions League qualification places but having already secured a Europa League place via its Italian Cup win last month.

Milan produces another fightback to sink Parma

AC Milan produced another comeback act as it scored three times after the break to beat Parma 3-1 and remain undefeated since the season resumed.

Franck Kessie began the fightback with a ferocious strike before Alessio Romagnoli and Hakan Calhanoglu struck to make it five wins and two draws in seven games for Stefano Pioli's side. Jasmin Kurtic had given Parma a halftime lead.

Roma win again as Verona fumes over penalty

Meanwhile, AS Roma clocked up a third successive Serie A win by beating Verona 2-1 on Wednesday, getting off the mark with an early penalty which infuriated its opponent.

The referee ruled that Alan Empereur fouled Lorenzo Pellegrini but Verona claimed its player got the ball and coach Ivan Juric was ordered from the touchline for dissent. Jordan Veretout converted the spot-kick in the 10th minute.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan struck the foot of the post before Edin Dzeko headed a second in first-half stoppage time, the Bosnian's 15th goal of the season.

Matteo Pessina pulled one back with a clever backheel two minutes after the restart.

Fiorentina ends Lecce's top-flight hopes

Fiorentina scored three first-half goals and missed a penalty on the way to a 3-1 win over Lecce which almost certainly ended any doubts about maintaining its top-flight status.

Federico Chiesa gave the visitor a sixth-minute lead before Erick Pulgar had a weak penalty saved by Gabriel four minutes later.

Rachid Ghezzal curled a free kick over the wall in the 38th minute and Patrick Cutrone added another after being sent clear by Chiesa.

Lecce replied with a late Yevhen Shakhov goal and stayed 18th, inside the relegation zone, with 29 points, one less than Genoa. Fiorentina is 13th with 39 points.