Juventus’ title hopes suffered a blow in a 1-0 home defeat by lowly Udinese in Serie A on Monday after defender Lautaro Giannetti scored in the first half to leave Massimiliano Allegri’s side without a win in three games.
Juve are second on 53 points, seven adrift of Inter Milan, who have a game in hand, and a point ahead of AC Milan.
Inter won 4-2 at AS Roma on Saturday while third-placed Milan earned a 1-0 win over visiting champions Napoli on Sunday.
Juventus was the better team against Udinese, with Federico Chiesa and Arkadiusz Milik up front in Dusan Vlahovic’s absence as the Serbia forward sat out the match with a thigh issue.
But the visitors took the lead against the run of play in the 25th minute when Giannetti capitalised on a defensive error to net on the half-volley from close range after a free kick.
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Milik could have responded four minutes later while Adrien Rabiot had a good chance shortly afterwards before Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye pulled off a superb save to keep out Milik’s point-blank header just before the break.
Udinese, which barely had the ball after the restart, defended with a low block, seeking chances on counter attack.
Juve thought they had equalised on the hour following a corner but the effort was disallowed because Federico Chiesa’s cross went out of play.
Juventus had won its previous four league matches against Udinese without conceding a goal.
It next travels to relegation-threatened Hellas Verona on Saturday. Udinese, which moved up to 15th with 22 points from 24 games, host fellow struggler Cagliari on Sunday.
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