Dusan Vlahovic fired Juventus to a comfortable 3-0 win over Sassuolo with a brace in Monday’s Serie A opener. Serbia forward Vlahovic put Juve two ahead just before the break from the penalty spot after being fouled by Gian Marco Ferrari, and ended the match as a contest following a smart Angel Di Maria pass six minutes after the restart.
Argentina winger Di Maria had set Juve on the road for a low-key win with his first Serie A goal, a miscued volley in the 26th minute of his debut after arriving as a free agent this summer. Massimiliano Allegri’s side were missing returning hero Paul Pogba, out with a knee injury until next month, and injured starting goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. However Allegri gave Filip Kostic his Juve debut off the bench, a new face who along with the excellent Di Maria could rejuvenate a sluggish team who came up against the weak resistance at the Allianz Stadium.
Juve are also interested in Leandro Paredes and Memphis Depay as they try to make a proper title bid after finishing 16 points behind champions AC Milan last season. Sassuolo, whose key players such as Giacomo Raspadori and Domenico Berardi are transfer targets for bigger clubs, have already suffered the ignominy of being knocked out of the Italian Cup by local rivals Modena this season and they didn’t perform much better in Turin.
Alessio Dionisi’s side didn’t wake up until they were three goals down and by then Juve were content to sit back and see out the result.
Italian league to probe racist chanting at Verona
Meanwhile, the Italian football league has launched an enquiry after Napoli striker Victor Osimhen suffered racist abuse from the stands during a Serie A match at Verona on Monday. The league’s disciplinary commission fined Verona 12,000 euros for insulting chants directed at the Napoli supporters.
Now they wish to know exactly which part of the stadium and which section of fans were involved in the racist chants.
A section of the home support made monkey chants at Osimhen, the latest episode of racist chanting at Verona who have a long history of far-right sympathies among their hardcore support.
Osimhen was among the scorers in a thumping 5-2 win for Napoli.
Last season Verona were ordered to close a section of their stadium for one match after racist chants from a section of their supporters.
Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic scores against Sassuolo in Serie A on Monday. (Reuters)
