Juventus risk losing touch at the top after draw at bottom club Fiorentina
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
FLORENCE, Italy - Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw at bottom side Fiorentina on Saturday, a second successive stalemate which threatens to derail the Turin side's ambitions to challenge at the top of Serie A.
Luciano Spalletti's Juventus stay sixth on 20 points, with four of the five clubs ahead of them in the standings still to play this weekend, and Inter Milan, AS Roma and Bologna leading the way on 24 points. Fiorentina remain in bottom place on six points.
"As an ambition you have to have the fight for the Scudetto," Spalletti told reporters. "I think I can make the players give more than what we showed today."
The first half was marked more by what happened in the stands rather than on the pitch, with Juventus's Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic, a former Fiorentina player, the target of discriminatory chants from the home fans.
Early in the match, the referee asked for an announcement to be made calling for a stop to the chants or the game would be interrupted. When Vlahovic looked to have earned a penalty, the insults only increased.
The referee pointed to the spot when Vlahovic was pulled back by defender Pablo Mari but, after a check at the VAR monitor, the forward was judged to have fouled the Fiorentina man.
The insults resumed and the referee brought play to a halt, with Fiorentina captain Luca Ranieri appealing for common sense from the fans behind the goal.
On the pitch, former Juventus forward Moise Kean almost put Fiorentina ahead when he cut in from the wing before letting fly with a shot which cannoned back off the crossbar.
Vlahovic had the perfect chance to silence the home fans when sent through on goal but after rounding keeper David de Gea, he took the ball too wide and his effort ended up in the side netting.
"Dusan has the kind of character where the more they get on his back the more he reacts positively," Spalletti said.
Juventus found the opening goal deep into added time before the break, with Filip Kostic hitting a shot from distance which flew past De Gea and into the far bottom corner.
Fiorentina levelled three minutes after halftime, Kean laying off the ball and Rolando Mandragora sending a curling shot from outside the area sailing into the top corner.
Minutes later Kean's strike was parried away by keeper Michele Di Gregorio as Fiorentina took the upper hand and for long periods looked the more likely to find a winner.
Juventus had a late chance from a Weston McKennie header but De Gea stretched to tip the ball over the bar and both sides had to settle for one point apiece which does little for their respective objectives.
Fiorentina are still without a win after 12 league games, while Juventus have won only two matches in their last 13 across Serie A and the Champions League. REUTERS
