Juventus forward Carlos Tevez vies with Udinese midfielder Marques Loureiro Allan during the Serie A match at Friuli Stadium in Udine yesterday.
AFP/Rome
Juventus spurned the chance to go nine points clear of title challengers Roma in a scoreless draw away to Udinese yesterday, as Napoli crept closer to second place in Serie A.
On a day of several surprises in Italy’s top flight, Juve failed to capitalise after Roma’s fourth consecutive draw on Saturday as Udinese held on to end a six-game losing streak to the Turin giants to leave them seven points in front of Roma.
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri lamented his side’s poor first-half display, but admitted they were ultimately lucky to escape with a point.
“In the first half we played badly, gave possession away far too often and they put up a wall in defence and tried to hit us on the counter-attack,” he told Sky Sport.
“There was improvement in the second half but it wasn’t easy because Udinese were playing with a lot of intensity. It was a fair result because we also risked losing this game.”
Rafael Benitez’s Napoli held on for a precious 2-1 win at Chievo to finish the weekend as the only top-five side to take all three points, tightening their grip on third place to now sit just four behind Roma, who were held 1-1 by Empoli on Saturday.
Both Sampdoria and Lazio saw their respective bids for a third-place finish dented by respective defeats to Torino and Cesena.
Samuel Eto’o’s debut for Sampdoria, the Cameroonian replacing Eder on 71 minutes, ended in a chastening 5-1 defeat away to Torino, with former Juventus striker Fabio Quagliarella notably hitting a hat-trick to send Giampiero Ventura’s side up to ninth in the table.
Humbled Sampdoria coach Sinisa Mihajlovic told Sky Sport: “I want to say sorry to the fans, I hold my hands up for this terrible performance today. I’m the one who is responsible.
“But the players should be taking a long hard look at themselves. It was embarrassing but... I would always prefer to lose 5-1 once than five games 1-0.
“I can only take my hat off to Ventura and to his team. They were superior on all fronts.”
Samp’s slip proved costly, especially in the light of Napoli’s 2-1 away win over Chievo which tightened their grip on the last Champions League qualifying position.
