Giovanni Simeone scored a first half brace for Verona before Weston McKennie scored a late consolation goal for Juventus.
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Giovanni Simeone scored a first half brace as Hellas Verona beat Juventus 2-1 in the Serie A fixture at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium on Saturday. The Bianconeri were 13 points adrift top spot after the defeat to Sassuolo in the midweek fixture. Meanwhile, to add to their worries, in-form forward Federico Chiesa joins the injury list along with Aaron Ramsaey, Moise Kean and Mattia De Sciglio. Verona has produced some impressive results this season, defeating Roma and Lazio earlier.
Verona took the lead within 10 minutes courtesy of a mistake by midfielder Arthur. The Brazilian, when pressured by Verona players, gave the ball away, his back pass fell to Antonin Barak on the right side of the penalty area. Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny got his gloves to Barak’s attempt but could do nothing to prevent Simeone scoring from the rebound.
The Argentine striker is in red hot form having netted four goals against Lazio last weekend and continued from where he left off, netting four minutes after the opener. The 26-year-old cut inside from the left and placed the ball at the far top corner with a sensational right-footed curler from outside the box.
In response, at the other end, Paulo Dybala blasted over and Alex Sandro’s shot side netted. And then, just before the break, Dybala’s left footed curler hit the crossbar. The Argentina winger’s left foot was causing all sorts of problems to the Verona defence as once again his shot from outside the box went just wide.
Substitute McKennie almost scored with his first touch with his attempt at the far post from a free-kick, forcing a one-handed save from Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo. However the American pulled one back for the visitors with 10 minutes remaining. Danilo found McKennie with a through ball on the edge of the box. The 23-year-old controlled the ball and smashed it past Montipo into the roof of the net.
Verona began to defend deeper and deeper, tension began to rise as Verona had failed to hold on to the lead in five of their previous six games. Montipo made a full-stretch save from Dybala’s long-ranger. In the end, the Yellow and Blues held on to the slender lead and secured all three points.
The win helped Verona to seventh spot, level on points with Juventus who have 15 points from 11 games.
Elsewhere, Atalanta and Lazio played out a thrilling 2-2 draw in Bergamo. Atalanta played better football in the opening stages of the game but the visitors took the lead against the run of play. Danilo Cataldi’s through ball found Ciro Immobile’s run inside the box, although Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso made a one handed stop to deny the Italian striker, Pedro slotted in from the rebound.
On the stroke of half-time, Atalanta equalized through Duvan Zapata. The Colombian shrugged off the challenge from Adam Marusic on the right side of the penalty area before drilling in from a tight angle. It was a powerful strike, but Musso should have done better as he was beaten at the neat post.
Lazio restored the lead through Immobile on 74 minutes. Pedro was involved again as he sprinted forward with the ball from his own half before spreading it down the left ro Toma Masic, who set up Immobile to fire in from close range.
The hosts equalized in the stoppage time. Freuler’s cross was flicked on by Demiral for Marten de Roon to score with a well-taken half-volley from inside the box.
