Immobile double ends Juventus unbeaten home record
MILAN: Lazio ended Juventus’s two-year unbeaten home record in all competitions with a 2-1 win after Paulo Dybala missed a stoppage-time penalty awarded with the help of the video assistant on Saturday.
The defeat meant that titleholders Juventus dropped five points behind leaders Napoli who won their eighth straight game by beating bitter rivals AS Roma 1-0 away with a Lorenzo Insigne goal, although last season’s runners-up hit the woodwork twice.
Ciro Immobile scored twice early in the second half for Lazio, the second goal a penalty, after Douglas Costa had given the champions a halftime lead.
Juve’s last home defeat was against Udinese in August, 2015 and they have since been unbeaten at their own stadium for 57 matches, including 41 in Serie A.
There was extraordinary drama in stoppage time when Dybala hit the foot of the post and before Juve were awarded a penalty.
Lazio substitute Gil Patric clattered into Federico Bernardeschi and, although he touched the ball, he also raised his leg and upended the Juventus player.
The tackle led to scuffles between players while referee Paolo Silvio Mazzoleni consulted the video assistant before pointing to the spot amid furious Lazio protests.
However, Dybala’s effort with the last kick of the match was brilliantly saved by Thomas Strakosha.
Juve’s first league defeat of the season left them on 19 points from eight games, level with Inter Milan and Lazio, while Napoli have 24.
“We have to avoid these lapses in concentration,” said Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri whose side are aiming for a seventh successive title. “To win the championship, we have to fight all the way.”
z BERLIN: Jupp Heynckes made a perfect start to his fourth spell as Bayern Munich coach with a 5-0 thrashing of Freiburg at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, as Borussia Dortmund’s Bundesliga lead was cut by a 3-2 home loss to RB Leipzig.
“We wanted to show what we can do straight away,” Thomas Mueller told Sky Sports. “There will be a lot of people singing our praises in the coming days, but we need to just keep working well.”
The win saw Bayern move within two points of Dortmund at the top of the table, after the league leaders suffered their first defeat of the season to RB Leipzig.
“It was a very heated game,” Dortmund midfielder Gonzalo Castro told Sky Sports.
“We messed up in the first half, the two goals we conceded were far too easy.”
The win saw Leipzig move up to third, overtaking Hoffenheim, who twice threw away the lead in a 2-2 draw at home to Augsburg.
Elsewhere, disciplinary mistakes saw Hertha Berlin suffer a 2-0 defeat by Schalke 04, after their entire team ‘took a knee’ before the game in a political protest.