Alvara Morata’s equaliser after the break salvaged a point for the defending champions.
Juventus picked up a lacklustre 1-1 draw against Fiorentina, with Alvaro Morata turning up a super substitute to score the equaliser.
The Bianconeri have been on the receiving end of late not only for their involvement in the European Super League but also regarding their sub-par performances on the field, which saw them lose their grip in the title defence.
However, the win against Parma last week gave them a big hope that they can finish second behind the current leaders’ Inter Milan.
Against Fiorentina, Juve was inconsistent once again as La Viola dominated the first half and got their lead around the half-hour mark, courtesy of Adrien Rabiot’s handball spotted by VAR. Vlahovic made the most of it by scoring the penalty.
Juve responded as soon as the second half commenced, with Alvaro Morata coming off the bench to score the leveller.
The visitors had most of the control for the remainder of the game, but La Viola’s defence, led by goalkeeper Dragowski, made it quite difficult.
Cristiano Ronaldo had a quiet day at the office as the Portuguese didn’t create much impact on the offensive end.
A win would have taken them to second place, but a draw meant that they are behind AC Milan and also played a game more than Atalanta and Napoli.
Andrea Pirlo admitted that his side were not the best in the first half but improved after the break.
“It was a horrible first half. We should’ve started in a different way because this was a fundamental fixture in the race for the Champions League places, but we were too slow, our distances were all wrong, and we were always second to the ball.
Our first half was bad, the second a little better, but it still wasn’t good enough. We tried one thing and ended up doing something completely different, but we adjusted to the way we have done throughout the season, and it went better.”
Pirlo to @SkySport: “We had a very bad first half, we wasn’t aggressive, we left too much space for their players, we didn’t attack in numbers. This was a fundamental match in the race for the Champions League. While in the second half we was a little better.”
Line-ups
Fiorentina
Bartlomiej Dragowski, Germán Pezzella, Martín Cáceres, Nikola Milenkovic, Gaetano Castrovilli (Valentin Eysseric), Sofyan Amrabat, Erick Pulgar, Igor Julio (Cristiano Biraghi), Lorenzo Venuti (Lucas Martínez Quarta), Franck Ribéry (Cristian Kouame), Dusan Vlahovic.
Substitutes
Antonio Rosati, José Callejón, Pietro Terracciano, Kévin Malcuit, Maximiliano Olivera, Antonio Barreca, Tofol Montiel.
Juventus
Wojciech Szczesny, Leonardo Bonucci (Alvaro Morata), Giorgio Chiellini, Matthijs de Ligt, Adrien Rabiot, Aaron Ramsey (Weston McKennie), Rodrigo Bentancur, Alex Sandro, Juan Cuadrado, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala (Dejan Kulusevski).
Substitutes
Gianluigi Buffon, Carlo Pinsoglio, Danilo, Federico Bernardeschi, Arthur, Gianluca Frabotta, Felix Correia.
