Italian Serie A Week 28: Juventus Slump To A Shocking Defeat; AC Milan Survive Scare From Florentina
Over the weekend, Juventus slumped to a shocking home defeat to newly promoted side, Benevento in week 28 of Italian Serie A game.
A total of eight games were played in the game week 28 of the Italian topflight, starting up with Friday’s five-goal thriller between Bologna and Crotone and ending with Napoli‘s away victory at Roma.
League leaders, Inter Milan had their game against Sassuolo postponed following a cluster of positive tests for COVID-19.
Take a look at a review of the top games played over the weekend.
Juventus 0:1 Benavento
Benevento threatened Juventus‘ Serie A title hopes on Sunday as Adolfo Gaich‘s second-half strike sealed a shock 1-0 victory in Turin and ended the relegation battlers’ 11-match winless run.
The defeat left champions Juve in third place, 10 points behind leaders Inter Milan with 11 games left. Benevento’s survival hopes were boosted as they moved seven points clear of the relegation zone in 16th position.
Juventus started on the front foot as Cristiano Ronaldo flashed a shot wide and Benavento’s goalkeeper Montipo denied Alvaro Morata with a diving save. The referee awarded Juve a penalty for handball but overturned the decision following a VAR review, and Ronaldo found the net only to be denied by the offside flag.
A catastrophic mistake from Juventus’ midfielder, Arthur gifted the patient visitors the lead, as his slack pass across his own penalty box was intercepted by Gaich, who finished into the bottom corner.
Florentina 2:3 AC Milan
Zlatan Ibrahimovic marked his return to AC Milan starting line-up with a goal in a thrilling 3-2 win at Florentina on Sunday, narrowing gap to Serie A leaders, Inter Milan to six points.
The Swede player opened the scoring in the ninth minute after springing the offside trap in his first league appearance since picking up a muscle injury against AS Roma on Feb. 28. His strike made him become the oldest player to score 15 goals in a season in the Serie A, at 39 years 159 days.
Meanwhile, Erick Pulgar and Franck Ribery struck either side of the break to put the hosts in front, but goals from Brahim Diaz and Hakan Calhanoglu swung the contest back in Milan‘s favour.
Following their game, Milan moved up to 59 points in second place but Inter have a game in hand.
Roma 0:2 Napoli
Mertens’ brace gave Napoli a comfortable ay victory a 2-0 away win at top-four rivals AS Roma on Sunday. It was Mertens’ 99th and 100th Serie A goals.
The 33-year-old Belgian striker curled in a free kick and nodded in a simple finish to put his side two goals in front after 34 minutes, and the hosts could not muster a response. Mertens is only the third Napoli player to reach 100 goals in Serie A, after Marek Hamsik (100) and Antonio Vojak (102).
The win was important for fifth-placed Napoli as it lifted them up to 53 points, three ahead of Roma in sixth and two behind Juventus and Atalanta in third and fourth respectively.
Italian Serie A Game week 28
Crotone 2:3 Bologna
Spezia 2:1 Cagliari
Hellas Verona 0:2 Atalanta
Sampdoria 1:0 Torino
Juventus 0:1 Benevento
Udinese 0:1 Lazio
Florentina 2:3 AC Milan
Roma 0:2 SSC Napoli.
