Milan: Juventus registered a cagey 1-0 win at Palermo Saturday and maintained the early-season doubts hanging over the Italian giants.
The Italian champions travel to Dinamno Zagreb Tuesday looking for the win that would get their Group H campaign up and running two weeks after a scoreless draw in Turin against Sevilla.
But, unlike Napoli, who cruised to a 2-0 win at home to Chievo and saw Marek Hamsik hit a cracking 100th goal for the club days before they welcome Benfica to the San Paolo, Juventus were put through the wringer. Allegri, who paired Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic up front for the first time, saw a flawed performance.
Juventus started this season being talked of as possible winners, two years after being outclassed 3-1 by Barcelona in the Berlin final. After just 12 seconds Higuain fired wide, and minutes later Miralem Pjanic’s direct free kick from a tight angle had Palermo custodian Josip Posavec on his toes.
Juve should have done better on the counter when Higuain ran on to Mandzukic’s smart backheel in midfield to set up Mario Lemina for a shot that Posavec parried, before his central defence headed to safety.
It was Juve’s best collective play of the game, but epitomised their evening’s work. It took a deflection from Edoardo Goldaniga, who stuck his leg out to stop Dani Alves’s speculative shot from 30 yards out, for Juve to finally beat Posavec.
Napoli, in comparison, had an easy night. Manolo Gabbiadini hit a 24th minute opener from Jose Callejon’s delivery. Hamsik’s 39th minute strike, his 100th in Napoli colours, was the second for the winning side.
Agence France-Presse
