Roma., Juventus failed to find a way to score in their visit to Empoli (0-0), this Saturday in the 4th round of Serie A, but despite this, the Turin team is provisionally the leader.
After two consecutive victories in the first two rounds, the team of the Italian-Brazilian Thiago Motta stopped just before the international break, drawing 0-0 against Roma, and in the resumption of the tournament they signed the same result.
With 8 points, the Juve She is in first place but will probably not hold on to that position at the end of the weekend.
Inter Milan (2nd, 7 points) will visit Monza (16th) on Sunday and the other two teams that arrived with 7 points at that round, Torino (3rd) and Udinese (4th), will also be chasing the top spot with their respective matches on Sunday against Lecce (13th) and on Monday against Parma (9th).
At the Carlo Castellani stadium in Empoli, Juventus were the better side and had the two best chances of the match, through Federico Gatti (36th minute) and Serbian Dusan Vlahovic (54). The Tuscan team made the most of their defensive order and even in the final stoppage time, with a long-range shot from Moroccan Youssef Maleh (90+1), they could have secured victory.
“It’s not the result we wanted, but the team played a good game. The positive point is that we didn’t concede a goal, but we had few chances,” Motta said in statements to the DAZN platform.
This new draw comes for Juventus on the eve of their return to the Champions League after a year of absence. They will face Dutch side PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday.
Empoli, meanwhile, remain unbeaten this season and have six points, after one win and three draws. This means they are seventh in the table.
Bologna still without a win
In the first match of the day, Bologna (14th), the big surprise of the last 2023-2024 season, continued without a win in the current Serie A and suffered greatly to draw with a goal in the final stoppage time (2-2) in their visit to newly promoted Como (19th), coached by the Spaniard Cesc Fabregas.
Four days before the Champions League kick-off, with a match against Ukrainian side Shakhtar on Wednesday, Bologna is full of doubts: it has only managed three points (three draws, one defeat) so far in the championship and is provisionally fourteenth.
The team now coached by Vincenzo Italiano can even feel lucky because it was losing 2-0 until the final stretch.
An own goal by Nicolo Casale in the 5th minute put Como ahead and Patrick Cutrone extended the lead in the 53rd.
The Bolognese arrived at the last quarter of an hour of the match with this disadvantage.
The 19-year-old Argentinian Santiago Castro got Bologna back into the game by scoring in the 76th minute and the goal that made it 2-2 came in the 90+1 minute, with a superb shot that went into the top corner by the British Samuel Iling-Junior.
The draw avoids the worst but leaves a bad taste in Bologna’s mouth ahead of their match against Shakhtar, against whom the northern Italian team will play in Europe’s top competition for the first time since 1964.
#Juventus #provisionally #lead #draw
– 2024-09-21 21:05:14
