Udinese stunned Juventus by winning 1-0 on Sunday as the Italian champions’ bid for a record-equaling fifth successive league title started with their first loss in 48 Serie A home matches.
Juventus dominated, but were unable to finish any of their many chances and Udinese made the hosts pay when Cyril Thereau scored 12 minutes from time with one of his side’s few opportunities.
“The result leaves a slightly sour taste,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “We need to be more confident in our ability and to not lose heart when we do not score. The players did everything required of them for 70 minutes, apart from scoring.”
Photo: AFP
It was Stefano Colantuono’s first match in charge of Udinese — although his 200th as coach in the top flight.
“Juventus force you to defend. You have to be good at hitting them on the few sniffs of a chance you get,” Colantuono said.
In the evening matches, ACF Fiorentina eased past 10-man AC Milan 2-0, while US Sassuolo beat SSC Napoli for the first time in Serie A, coming from behind to win 2-1.
Photo: Reuters
Inter snatched a 1-0 win over 10-man Atalanta BC, with on-loan Manchester City striker Stevan Jovetic curled a stunning strike into the top-right corner in the third minute of stoppage-time.
Newly-promoted Carpi missed a penalty in their first ever Serie A match as they lost 5-2 at UC Sampdoria, who had David Ivan sent off late on. Frosinone were also playing in the top flight for the first time in their history and lost 2-1 at home to Torino, despite taking the lead in the seventh minute through Danilo Soddimo.
Elsewhere, AC Chievo Verona won 3-1 at Empoli and US Citta di Palermo beat Genoa 1-0, with a stoppage-time strike from Abdelhamid El Kaoutari.
Juventus started brightly and Udinese struggled to get out of their half, with the hosts enjoying 11 shots in the first half to just one effort by their opponents.
Promising young talent Kingsley Coman was at the heart of many of Juve’s attacks, but it was Udinese who broke the deadlock in the 78th minute with their first shot on target. Panagiotis Kone put in a tantalizing cross from the right flank and Thereau escaped his marker to volley in low at the far post.
Both Fiorentina and Milan have new managers in Paulo Sousa and Sinisa Mihajlovic respectively.
Their match turned in the 36th minute when Rodrigo Ely was sent off for two bookings — both for fouls on Nikola Kalinic.
Marcos Alonso scored from the resulting free-kick, curling a sensational strike into the top-left corner.
Milan’s new signing Alessio Romagnoli gave away a penalty when he fouled Josip Ilicic near the byline. Milan goalkeeper Diego Lopez — who had pulled off a stunning save moments earlier — guessed the right way, but could not prevent Ilicic’s penalty from going into the bottom-right corner.
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