Verona 2 - 1 Juventus: Sensational Simeone compounds Juve blues

Juventus’ stuttering start to this season’s Serie A campaign continued as Giovanni Simeone made it eight goals in his last four starts with a first-half double to take Hellas Verona above ‘la Vecchia Signora’ after a superb 2-1 win.

Juve had only tasted victory once in their last six games at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi before today’s encounter and it was the hosts who took the lead on 11 minutes. Simeone scored four against Lazio last weekend and he broke the deadlock here, tucking into virtually an open goal after Arthur’s disastrous blind pass back towards his own area rolled through to Antonín Barák, whose shot was parried away by Szczęsny into the striker’s path. 

Massimiliano Allegri’s men had barely had time to catch their breath when Simeone, the son of Atlético Madrid manager Diego, received a pass from Darko Lazović 25 yards from goal and curled wonderfully beyond Szczęsny from the left edge of the area for Verona’s eighth goal out of 24 in the opening 15 minutes of league games this season. 

A stunned Juve looked to respond when Paulo Dybala stroked wide after neat combination play with Morata, but they were unable to wrestle control of the match from their opponents going into the break.

‘I Gialloblu’ knew though that they couldn’t rest on their laurels in the second period though, as no team in Serie A has lost more points from winning positions so far this term. Allegri had had enough just before the hour mark and brought on Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie, with the American almost making an immediate impact as Montipò clawed away his flicked effort back across goal from a free-kick. 

Morata was incensed that Koray Günter only received a yellow card after pulling him back on halfway as the Spaniard looked to latch onto a ball over the top, with the former Chelsea man’s show of aggression towards the referee also getting him a booking. On 80 minutes, McKennie halved the deficit, firing in off the bar from 15 yards after he was fed by Danilo’s incisive pass to set up a grandstand finish as a Juve siege saw Montipò do superbly to tip an effort from Dybala wide.

However, Verona saw out the victory in impressive fashion and now have 15 points in eight matches under Tudor, while Allegri’s side have now lost consecutive games in Italy’s top flight twice already this term, the first time since 1948 that they have achieved this unwanted statistic so early in the campaign.