Juve, Napoli play out goalless draw in early Serie A title tussle

Juventus and Napoli played out a goalless draw on Saturday, as the two teams, both tipped to challenge for the Serie A title, cancelled each other out in Antonio Conte’s return to his former club.

The fiercely contested, yet far from thrilling, match at the Allianz Stadium in Turin saw Juventus maintain their unbeaten start under new coach Thiago Motta.

Juve are yet to concede in Serie A this season, but their third consecutive league stalemate denied them top spot, which is currently held by local rivals Torino following their 3-2 win at Verona on Friday.

Torino lead the table by a point ahead of Udinese, who face Roma on Sunday, and third-placed Napoli, while Juve are another point behind in fourth.

“Without goals, it’s impossible to win games,” said a blunt Weston McKennie.

Motta surprised many by substituting Dusan Vlahovic at half-time for Timothy Weah, with the Serbian striker taken off purely for tactical reasons.

Vlahovic has failed to score in five of his six appearances for Juve this season, and only touched the ball six times in the first half, in another frustrating display.

“It’s not like he comes to the game and says, ‘I won’t score today’,” added McKennie.

“We have to keep his head up, remind him he’s an important player for us, and the goals will come eventually.”

Napoli coach Conte, a winner of eight Serie A titles and the 1996 Champions League during his 16 years with Juve as a player and coach, received a low-key welcome from his former supporters.

Conte had previously returned to Turin as Inter Milan’s coach, but that was during the Covid-19 pandemic when fans were not present in the stadium.
Stalemate –

Conte’s team did well to stifle the match, while also creating the two best chances either side of half-time, with Michele Di Gregorio pulling off a superb save from Matteo Politano, who also blasted over shortly after the break.

“I was concerned about the defence tonight, but they were excellent,” Conte told DAZN.

“We were at Juventus, who finished 18 points ahead of us last season and are in the Champions League. I asked the team to continue their good form, and I think they played well.

“We need to be better with the ball in certain areas though. We could have made more of some of the situations we created.”

Before kick-off, fans paid tribute to Toto Schillaci, the former Juve striker who became a national hero by scoring six times for Italy at the 1990 World Cup. Schillaci passed away on Wednesday at the age of 59 after battling bowel cancer.

Unfortunately, the moment of remembrance was disrupted by some Napoli supporters, who were whistled at by home fans after shouting insults.

There was little goalmouth action once the match got underway, with the first real chance not coming until stoppage time when Di Gregorio did brilliantly to tip away Politano’s free-kick as it flew past Romelu Lukaku’s head.

Politano was involved again nine minutes after the break, cutting inside and curling a shot just over the bar.

That was the last major incident of a match where both teams seemed content with a draw rather than risking defeat to a direct rival so early in the season.

Earlier, Venezia claimed their first win since being promoted, securing a 2-0 home victory over Genoa.

AFP