Serie A: Juventus beat Spezia to keep their title hopes alive

Serie A: Juventus beat Spezia to keep their title hopes alive

Juventus’ steady ascent into the Serie A title race resumed on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Spezia, bringing them within five points of leaders Inter Milan.

With 20 minutes left on the clock, Alvaro Morata scored for the first time since mid-January at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, keeping Juve on the back foot of champions Inter, who thrashed Salernitana 5-0 on Friday.

As Napoli hosts AC Milan in Sunday’s late encounter, Juve might find themselves seven points behind Inter, with both teams a point behind Inter ahead of one of the most important matches of the season thus far.

Regardless of the outcome at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Juve are putting pressure on the team with a run of 14 league games without a loss dating back to November.

When asked about his team’s intentions for the season, Morata was equally cautious as coach Massimiliano Allegri has reiterated that Juve are not in the title chase.

“I’m of my own opinion which is to think about the next training session and the next match. We can’t think about it too much,” he told DAZN.

The performance on Sunday was far from impressive for a club that was missing a number of key players, including Paulo Dybala, Weston McKennie, Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, and Denis Zakaria.

The sole goal for Juventus came as a result of a blunder by Spezia goalkeeper Ivan Provedel, who sent a terrible kick straight to Daniele Rugani.

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The centre-back passed to Dusan Vlahovic, who laid off to Manuel Locatelli before quickly passing to Alvaro Morata, who smashed a low finish beyond Provedel.

In the second half, Spezia came back strongly and had two excellent chances to equalize, with Emmanuel Gyasi hitting a spectacular chance straight at Wojciech Szczesny five minutes after the interval.

With 10 minutes remained, Szczesny had to be at his best to stop Kevin Agudelo, the Poland goalkeeper racing out of his goal to ensure the Colombian’s close-range finish didn’t win Spezia a deserved point.

*– Berardi hot streak –*

Krzysztof Piatek, Vlahovic’s replacement at Fiorentina, scored his sixth goal in a 1-1 home tie with Verona since joining in Florence in January.

With nine minutes on the clock, Piatek opened the scoring with a cleanly taken goal, but Gianluca Caprari leveled the scores from the penalty spot 10 minutes later.

Despite having a game in hand, Lucas Torreira then missed two sitters for the hosts, who are now 10 points behind Juventus and all but out of the Champions League competition.

Domenico Berardi’s outstanding season for Sassuolo continues with a brace of penalties in a 4-1 victory over struggling Venezia.

In an intriguing contest in which Giacomo Raspadori started the scoring in the second minute and Gianluca Scamacca netted another spot-kick just before the half-hour mark, Italy winger Berardi scored twice from the penalty spot in the 17th and 71st minutes.

This league season, Berardi has 12 goals and double-digit assists in his greatest season yet.

With Federico Chiesa sidelined for the season, Italy manager Roberto Mancini will be thinking about the 27-year-old ahead of the Azzurri’s important 2022 World Cup qualifying playoffs later this month.

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After a triumph that wasn’t all one-way traffic on the Venice Lagoon, Alessio Dionisi’s flashy Sassuolo are in 10th place with 39 points.

Soon after Scamacca’s goal, Thomas Henry trimmed the lead to two goals with his sixth goal of the season, but the hosts squandered chances in a strong period soon after half-time, and Berardi punished them.

Venezia are in third place with 22 points, three behind Cagliari, who were thrashed 3-0 by Lazio on Saturday.

After a goalless stalemate with Empoli, Genoa is four points behind Venezia in 19th place. Alexander Blessin became the first Serie A coach to draw his first six matches in charge.

 

PUNCH