On Monday, Juventus suffered a 1-0 defeat at home against Udinese, prompting fans to boo the team as they left the field. This defeat greatly damages their chances of winning the title.
Allegri’s team experienced another difficult loss after their 1-0 defeat to top-ranked Internazionale last week. This latest defeat was even more painful, as it increases Inter’s lead to seven points with a game in hand, following their 4-2 victory over Roma on Sunday.
Lautaro Giannetti’s first-half goal proved enough for the struggling visitors to move three points clear of the bottom three. The Juventus forward Arkadiusz Milik had a goal disallowed and missed a number of gilt-edged chances to equalise on a frustrating night for Allegri.
After serving a suspension, Milik returned to the lineup and replaced the in-form striker Dusan Vlahovic, who was unable to play due to a muscle injury. Juventus had a strong start to the game but conceded a goal in the 25th minute when centre-back Giannetti scored his inaugural goal in Serie A, in only his second appearance for Udinese.
Thomas Kristensen nodded on Lazar Samardzic’s free-kick and Alex Sandro’s attempted clearance was straight at Giannetti, who fired it in from close range. The 30-year-old joined the Friuli in January from Vélez Sarsfield, where he had spent his entire career – scoring just three goals in 200 club games in Argentina.
Milik had the opportunity to equalize right away, but he poorly executed a cross and missed the target completely from close range. He then headed another cross directly at the Udinese goalkeeper, Maduka Okoye, just before half-time. Juventus received negative reactions from the crowd at halftime and their performance did not improve much afterwards.
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In the 58th minute, the home team was able to score a goal when Milik finished off a corner kick from Adrien Rabiot. However, the goal was not counted as the ball had already gone out of bounds from Federico Chiesa’s delivery. Udinese then adopted a defensive strategy to protect their lead, and it was effective as Juventus was unable to score against Okoye.
Following the defeat of his team to Inter at San Siro, Allegri was determined to stress that their achievable goal was to secure a spot in the top four. This was a recurring theme for the Juventus manager even after this loss. “Our team consists of many players who lack championship-winning experience, but we must emerge from this situation even stronger,” Allegri stated in an interview with Sky.
“We have only earned one point in three games, which is disappointing. However, we must stay calm because our main objective is to qualify for the Champions League. It is pointless to be anxious or dwell on past mistakes at this time. Instead, we must focus on putting in the necessary work.”
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Almería, who has not won a single game yet, caused Athletic to be held back.
Athletic Bilbao’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League were significantly damaged when they were only able to secure a 0-0 draw against Almería. This was despite Almería being reduced to 10 players for the majority of the second half.
Athletic could have surpassed Atlético Madrid for the fourth spot with a win, however, Ernesto Valverde’s squad had a difficult time against a defensively-minded home team without their top scorer Gorka Guruzeta and in-form winger Nico Williams.
Almería have not won a league match all season but held on for just their seventh point of the campaign despite the dismissal of winger Largie Ramazani in the 53rd minute for picking up two yellow cards. Raul García came closest to breaking the deadlock, hitting the post for the visitors from Ander Herrera’s cross.
Athletic’s Óscar de Marcos expressed disappointment with the team’s performance, stating that possession of the ball for most of the game was not sufficient. The result did not benefit either team’s aspirations. De Marcos found it frustrating that they did not have more opportunities to score despite having control of the game.
Source: theguardian.com
