MISERY FOR OLD LADY
Juventus’ title hopes rocked as Milan keep pressure on Inter
JUVENTUS’ hopes of winning a 10th consecutive Serie A title took another blow on Sunday with a 1-0 home loss to lowly Benevento as AC Milan closed the gap on leaders Inter Milan with a hardfought 3-2 win at Fiorentina.
Adolfo Gaich scored the only goal in the 69th minute at Juve’s Allianz Stadium following a bad pass across his own penalty area by midfielder Arthur.
Andrea Pirlo’s side stay third, 10 points behind Inter whose match against Sassuolo was postponed because of a Covid-19 outbreak at the league leaders.
Second-placed Milan are four points ahead of the reigning champions after they recovered from their Europa League exit to Manchester United by cutting the deficit to Inter to six points with a 3-2 win over Fiorentina.
For Juve, who have 11 games left to play this season, it was another blow after being dumped out of the Champions League at the last 16 stage by Porto earlier this month.
“We performed poorly, in ever aspect,” said Pirlo.
“We have to continue to belie in the title. The objective does n change, it’s the mindset which must
Serie A top scorer Cristiano Ro aldo, who has netted 23 times in t league this season, drew a blank i Turin a week after reaching 770 goa to beat Pele’s all-time mark of 767, wit Benevento goalkeeper Lorenzo Mo tipo pulling off a string of fine save
In Florence, Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to the starting line-up for Milan for the first time in over three weeks and scored after nine minutes following Simon Kjaer’s ba over the top.
But Milan needed Brahim Diaz 57th-minute strike and a Hakan Ca hanoglu winner with quarter of a hour to go to snatch victory.
A curling Erick Pulgar free-kic had pulled Fiorentina level wit Franck Ribery then putting the host ahead six minutes after the break.
“It was very important to win lik this after the defeat against Manche ter United,” said Ibrahimovic, who 39 became the oldest player to score 15 goals in a single Serie A season.