MILAN: The opening match in Serie A also produced the first decision from video review on Saturday.

The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) awarded a penalty to Cagliari but Diego Farias’ effort was saved by Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and the Bianconeri went on to win 3-0.

“I don’t want to comment on the VAR, just as before I didn’t comment on the referees’ decisions,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “I’ll only say that luckily we have Buffon in goal: He’s still the best.”

Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain scored as Juve, who sealed a record sixth consecutive Serie A title last season but lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid, take a familiar spot at the top of the fledgling table.

Napoli also enjoyed a positive start with a comfortable 3-1 win at promoted Hellas Verona, where Arkadiusz Milik repaid Maurizio Sarri for a first start of the season with Napoli’s second.

It took the Bianconeri less than 12 minutes to open the scoring when Mandzukic volleyed in Stephan Lichtsteiner’s cross past Alessio Cragno.

Serie A is among the leagues which are trialling the use of VAR this season and they were brought into action for the first time just after the half hour mark at the Allianz Stadium.

Duje Cop went down under Alex Sandro’s challenge and, after a bit of hesitation, referee Fabio Maresca summoned video reviews. After consulting with the VAR and looking at the incident on a pitchside monitor, he gave a penalty to Cagliari.

Buffon saved Farias’ penalty and Juve doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time when Dybala controlled Miralem Pjanic’s ball over the top and fired it home.

Juve spurned two chances in quick succession before Higuain made up for earlier misses from Dybala and Mandzukic by latching on to Alex Sandro’s angled delivery to beat Cragno down low for his first goal of the season in the 66th minute.

Juve coasted home and gave debuts to newcomers Douglas Costa and Blaise Matuidi, although 40 million euro ($47 million) signing Federico Bernardeschi remained on the bench.

VAR FOR NAPOLI TOO

Football’s law-making body the International Football Association Board (IFAB) authorised trials of VAR last year and is due to make a final decision on whether to approve their use permanently in March.

And video technology was also called upon in Napoli’s victory at Verona.

Napoli took the lead when Verona goalkeeper Nicolas flapped at a corner and it bounced off Samuel Souprayen’s shin and into the net for an own goal.

Michael Fabbri consulted with the VAR to check whether there was a foul on Nicolas before awarding the goal.

“[Kalidou] Koulibaly’s hand was on Nicolas, but the VAR judged it how it did and anyway I don’t think it would have changed the outcome of the match,” Verona coach Fabio Pecchia.

Napoli doubled their lead minutes later when Lorenzo Insigne counterattacked and Milik slotted across into the bottom left corner. It was the Poland international’s first league start since injuring his knee in October.

Faouzi Ghoulam finished off another Insigne-inspired move just after the hour, although Napoli had a nervous few minutes as Elseid Hysaj gave away a penalty, was sent off and Giampaolo Pazzini pulled one back from the spot.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2017