TURIN (AFP) - Juventus have
escaped Salernitana with a hard-fought 2-0 win which brought some positivity after a difficult week, while Atalanta are on the heels of Serie A’s leaders following a Mario Pasalic-inspired 4-0 win over Venezia.
Paulo Dybala and Alvaro Morata struck the goals which gave struggling Juve the points at the Stadio Arechi but they stay seventh, seven points behind Atalanta who sit fourth in the final Champions League spot.
“Right now more than ever we need a sense of responsibility. We don’t need to do anything out of the ordinary, we need to do the normal things but with intelligence... today we did that,” said Giorgio Chiellini to DAZN.
Dybala lashed home the opener in the 21st minute after a neat one-two with Dejan Kulusevski and 10 minutes later Juve thought they had doubled their lead through captain Chiellini.
However after the veteran defender had celebrated pushing home the rebound following Juan Cuadrado’s free-kick thwacking the post, the goal was ruled out by VAR officials who spotted Moise Kean straying fractionally offside as the Colombian struck his shot.
From there Juventus dominated proceedings but could count themselves very lucky not to enter the final half an hour level with their promoted opponents when, after a confused Juve defense allowed a cross to wriggle out to Luca Ranieri, the 22-year-old could only fire onto the post from close range.