Juventus on Sunday were left struggling in the unlikely surroundings of Serie A’s bottom three after a 1-1 draw with AC Milan kept them searching for a first league win this season.
Alvaro Morata’s fourth-minute goal gave Juventus the lead, but Ante Rebic headed in a 76th-minute equalizer as Milan ended the weekend in second place on goal-difference behind city rivals Inter, who crushed Bologna 6-1 on Saturday.
Milan could have won the match in the dying moments, but Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny pulled off a brilliant point-blank save to deny Pierre Kalulu.
Photo: Reuters
Juventus, still reeling from the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, are 18th with just two points from four games, with only Cagliari and US Salernitana 1919 propping them up.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri had harsh words for some of his stars.
“You have to be determined, to bring home the tackle, keep focused. This is part of the general growth process of some players,” Allegri said. “I will admit that I made mistakes on the substitutions, I got it wrong. I should have put more defensive players on, and put the 1-0 lead under lock and key, so I take responsibility for that.”
Milan, missing both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olivier Giroud, dropped their first league points of the season, but they will be relieved not to have lost back-to-back games having gone down to Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League last week.
Spain international Morata temporarily allowed Juventus fans to forget about Ronaldo when he sped away from Theo Hernandez before coolly slotting the ball past Mike Maignan.
Milan only threatened through three long-range attempts from Sandro Tonali in the first half, but Croatian winger Rebic preserved Milan’s unbeaten league start by heading in a Tonali corner with 14 minutes left.
“We came here to win the game,” Milan coach Stefano Pioli told DAZN.
“Juventus did better in the first 20 minutes, were more determined and focused, but we continued playing and did much better toward the end with chances to win, so it was overall a positive performance,” he said.
AS Roma dropped their first points in Serie A under Jose Mourinho as Hellas Verona came from behind to earn new coach Igor Tudor a 3-2 victory on his debut.
Lorenzo Pellegrini’s clever back-heeled flick gave visitors Roma a halftime lead in the pouring rain as they sought a fourth successive league win.
Antonin Barak equalized for Verona shortly after the interval and Gianluca Caprari put the hosts ahead with a precise finish five minutes later.
Ivan Ilic turned a Pellegrini cross into his own goal to bring Roma level before the hour, but Davide Faraoni’s brilliant volley secured the win for Verona to halt a run of three straight losses.
“I knew their qualities, even before the change in coach,” Mourinho told DAZN. “They’d already posed big problems to their opponents and when there’s a coaching change, there’s often a reaction mentally, it can happen.”
Roma’s city rivals SS Lazio needed a late goal from Danilo Cataldi to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Cagliari.
Ciro Immobile struck for the fifth time in four games as Lazio went ahead just before halftime.
Joao Pedro’s looping header pegged Lazio back right at the start of the second half, with Keita Balde then firing home against his former club to put Cagliari on top.
However, the Sardinian club could not hold on for victory in Walter Mazzarri’s first game in charge as Cataldi fired into the top corner seven minutes from time to rescue Lazio.
Earlier, UC Sampdoria climbed away from the bottom three with a 3-0 victory over Empoli.
Venezia’s first Serie A home match since the 2001-2002 season ended in a crushing 2-1 loss to Spezia.
Simone Bastoni curled in a sensational effort as Spezia grabbed an early lead at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, an intriguing ground set on the southeastern tip of Venice’s main archipelago.
Pietro Ceccaroni headed Venezia level on the hour, but Mehdi Bourabia’s brilliant stoppage-time strike from distance claimed Thiago Motta’s Spezia a first win.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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