Juventus’ hopes of winning their 10th consecutive Serie A title delivered another setback with a 1-0 home defeat to Benevento on Sunday. Argentine forward Adolfo Gaich scored the only goal of the game in the 69th minute after a poor pass from Juve midfielder Arthur in the penalty area. Andrea Pirlo’s side were 10 points behind Inter Milan, whose match against Sasuolo was postponed due to the Kovid-19 outbreak in league leaders. It was the fourth league defeat for Juve, who has 11 games left to play this season, and another setback after being eliminated from the Champions League in the final 16 stage by Porto earlier this month.
“It’s not a question of pressure, we had to play a better game, we had to win,” Pirlo said.
“We had a bad game in every way. We ran too much, we made too many mistakes.
“We must continue to believe the title. We must continue to follow our path to be able to remain there.”
“Purpose does not change, it is the chief that needs to change.”
Cristiano Ronaldo led his tally to a record 770 career goals in official matches, making a hat-trick against Cagliari last time in the league.
And the 36-year-old was presented with a ‘goat’ jersey by club president Andrea Agnelli to break the Brazilian goalscorer’s official goalscoring record.
But the Serie A top scorer, who has scored 23 times this season, created an empty spot at the Allenz Stadium, with a superb effort by Benevento goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo.
Ronaldo fired wide minutes into the game and the ball was ruled just over the net before the break, while Montipo denied Alvaro Morata as the opener after half an hour.
Benevento broke the deadlock after a sinister pass to Arthur in the face of goal towards Danilo, which gave Gaich a bounce for his second goal in five matches since arriving on loan from CSKA Moscow.
Federico Chiassa had a penalty appeal for a dam foul play challenge amid opposition from the entire Juventus team.
Montipo then forbade Ronaldo to come late twice, first for close range for the first 10 minutes and then to rebound with Danilo again on the bar in the final minute.
After holding Juventus 1–1 in their previous meeting, 16th-seeded Benevento earned three precious points in their fight against Charge Pratiksha and now sit seven points away from the drop zone.
– Atalanta, Lazio bounced back –
Juventus equalized on points with Atalanta, who bounced back after dropping out of the Champions League to consolidate fourth place in Real Madrid with a 2–0 win at their Madrid Verona.
Ruslan Malinowski scored the first goal from the penalty spot after a Federico DiMarco handball in the 33rd minute in Verona.
Duvan Zapata added another before the break, after being hit after the first attempt, as the Colombian rolled the ball into an empty net near Marco Silvestri.
Verona coach Ivan Jurek was serving a touchline ban and Gian Piero Gasparini surprised him with a four-man defense instead of his favorite three.
Japata spoke of the Atalanta attack with Luis Muriel and Josip Ilicik starting on the bench before arriving for the final quarter of an hour.
“Many teams are fighting for the Champions League. We are Dalits, but will fight till the end,” Gasparin said.
“We hope that there will be no problem during the international break and when the players are fit.”
Atalanta are five points ahead of both Natoli and Roma, who clash with each other later on Sunday, while Verona fell to their third consecutive defeat to finish ninth.
Promoted
Seven minutes before the break, Lazio also recovered from a Champions League elimination from Bayern Munich with a 1-0 win at Udinese, seven minutes before the break.
Rome is six points away from fourth place.
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