Juventus made very hard work of breaking down 10-man Lazio after Alessio Romagnoli’s early red card, eventually relying on a Mario Gila own goal.
The Bianconeri were still unbeaten, but with four draws they were level on points with Marco Baroni’s men. Francisco Conceicao was suspended, with Teun Koopmeiners, Nico Gonzalez, Weston McKennie, Arek Milik and Gleison Bremer injured. Manuel Lazzari didn’t make the trip, though Matteo Guendouzi started despite a knock.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
Khephren Thuram sprinted to the by-line and the pull-back was crucially intercepted by Mario Gila, but the game changed on 24 minutes when Dusan Vlahovic’s first-time pass sent Pierre Kalulu clear on goal, brought down by a desperate Alessio Romagnoli sliding tackle. VAR confirmed it was outside the area and he didn’t get the ball, so a red card was inevitable.
Vlahovic’s free kick skimmed the bar and he turned a volley wide under pressure from Adam Marusic, while Federico Gatti turned off target from six yards on the Andrea Cambiaso cross.
Vlahovic had the best chance on 57 minutes when he pounced on a deflected Khephren Thuram attempt and turned it onto the underside of the crossbar.
Moments later, Tim Weah’s cross went over Vlahovic and reached Douglas Luiz for the diving header wide at the far post.
The first genuine save Ivan Provedel made was at the 81st minute, getting down to push the Vlahovic curler away. He also didn’t even have to move as the Nicolò Fagioli rocket from distance was straight at him, but Juventus found their breakthrough with a stroke of luck.
Mario Gila was in the ideal position to clear the Juan Cabal cross from the left, but the exhausted defender got it all wrong and accidentally kicked it into his own net from six yards. He had been limping for some time with Lazio completing all their substitutions.
Vasilije Adzic stung Provedel’s gloves from distance too.
Juventus 1-0 Lazio
Gila og 85 (J)
Sent off: Romagnoli 24 (L)
Player statistic
24' | Alessio Romagnoli | |||
Manuel Locatelli | 45+2' |
Nicolò Savona | 50' | |||
Nicolò Fagioli | 60' | |||
Mario Gila | 85' | |||
Douglas Luiz | 90' | |||
90+4' | Matías Vecino | |||
90+5' | Pedro |
You can sense the bitterness in the title