Juventus held by Hellas Verona as Barcelona await

Date: 25th October 2020 at 10:42pm
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ALLIANZ STADIUM (Torino) – Juventus dropped another two points after being held to a 1-1 draw by Hellas Verona on Sunday evening.

An inspired substitution from Ivan Juric saw Andrea Favilli come on 55 minutes in, and score five minutes into his time on the pitch, before having to go off two minutes later.

Dejan Kulusevski got the Bianconeri level with 13 minutes left to play, but despite dominating the final moments of the game Andrea Pirlo’s men couldn’t find a winner.

The draw comes off the back of the same scoreline against Crotone in Round 4, and leaves the Bianconeri on nine points after five Serie A games. Next up for Juventus is the visit of Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Juventus were a little sluggish in the opening stages with too many passes cut out by Verona, and in fact it was the away side who were the more dangerous, with Ebrima Colley putting the ball in the back of the net, though it was ruled out for offside.

The first chance for Juventus came the way of Federico Bernardeschi, who was sent through on goal by Adrien Rabiot, but the No.33 was denied by the strong arm of Marco Silvestri in the Verona goal.

Nikola Kalinic managed to roll an angled effort wide of Wojciech Szczesny’s goal, Danilo rifled a long range strike well over the bar at the other end, before Alan Empereur poke a chance from inside the six-yard box off target.

Then just as the first half was coming to a close Juventus should have taken the lead when the manage to get men over on the opponents with Juan Cuadrado meeting a low drilled cross just inside the penalty area, but his thunderous striker smashed off the crossbar.

But that elusive goal almost came moments later when a perfectly placed through ball from Cuadrado allowed Morata in on goal, and he neatly dinked the ball over Silvestri, but it was ruled out for offside after a check by VAR.

Just before the hour mark, Verona found the back of the net when Mattia Zacagni found Favilli unmarked in the box and he made no mistake and fired the ball into the back of the net, five minutes after coming off the bench, and two minutes before he was taken off himself.

Juventus piled on the pressure, leaving Verona pinned inside their own box, though a deflected Dybala freekick and Morata effort straight at Silvestri was as close as they came initially.

Another chance struck the crossbar, this time it was Dybala’s curling shot from just outside the penalty area, before Kulusevski levelled the score with a well placed strike into the bottom corner.

Dybala and Rabiot both fired off target as Juventus went in search of the winner, with the Argentine having another shot which rolled agonisingly past the upright.

Things got more heated as time wore on with Davide Faraoni appearing to flick the ear of Kulusevski which led to handbags between the two sides, but ultimately no winner for the Bianconeri.

 

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