Moise Kean scored the winner for Juventus in Torino while Victor Osimhen's winner helped Napoli maintain the perfect start to the season.
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Juventus beat AS Roma courtesy of a lone goal by Moise Kean in the Serie A fixture on Sunday at Juventus stadium. Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny denied Jordan Veretout from the penalty spot after some controversial refereeing. Elsewhere Napoli edged past Torino with the help of a late header from Victor Osimhen at Stadio San Paolo. Meanwhile Lorenzo Insigne saw another penalty saved. The win helped Napoli to maintain their perfect start to the season and stay on top of the table.
Szczesny was called into action straight away, palming away Gianluca Mancini’s header from Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free-kick. However, the hosts took the lead in the 16th minute through Everton Loanee Kean. Mattia De Sciglio delivered a superb in-swinging cross from the left with Rodrigo Bentancur’s header going in off the back of Kean’s head.
Things got worse for Roma as Nicolo Zaniolo landed awkwardly and went off with a knee injury, largely as a precaution. Meanwhile, just before the break, Tammy Abraham went past two Juventus defenders and the ball fell to Henrikh Mkhitaryan, brought down by Szczesny for a penalty. Abraham did put the ball into the net on the rebound, but the referee had already blown the whistle.
Had he waited for a couple of seconds and played the advantage to see what happens, it could have been an equalizer. However, Mkhitaryan also fell onto the ball with his hand and that could have been considered a handball in the build-up. Meanwhile, Veretout stepped up and Szczesny made a low diving save to his left.
Immediately after the restart, Federico Bernardeschi tested Rui Patricio with a superb overhead kick and Kean ballooned the rebound. Juve continued attacking and Bernardeschi flashed his long ranger inches wide. Meanwhile at the other end, Veretout’s curler went just wide of goal.
Matias Vina made a brilliant turn to beat Danilo and dribble into the box but his shot was blocked by Giorgio Chiellini.
Napoli started the game positively as Osimhen’s powerful strike from outside the area wasn’t far away from the goal and his perfectly-timed header went over the crossbar. The hosts were awarded a penalty for a foul from behind on Di Lorenzo by Kone. However Insigne’s weak attempt was comfortably saved by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.
The Torino goalkeeper was having a busy night as he used his legs to deny Kalidou Koulibaly from 11 yards. Napoli thought they had scored on 56 minutes when Di Lorenzo’s header from Mario Rui’s free-kick went inside the goal, but it was ruled off-side after a long VAR intervention. Napoli kept on pushing for the goal as Lozano’s angled drive beat Milinkovic-Savic but bounced off the far post.
Torino had a rare opportunity at the other end, as Josip Brekalo dribbled past two defenders before being denied by Ospina from close range. Napoli finally broke the deadlock on 81 minutes. Koulibaly’s back-heel flick sent Dries Mertens down the left, his cross was charged down, then Eljif Elmas blocked Sasa Lukic’s clearance and the ball bounced up for Osimhen to rise high and head home.
The win helped Napoli to 24 points from 8 games, while Torino are placed 12th with 8 points from as many games.
