MILAN: Cristiano Ronaldo stayed at home as Juventus battled to a 1-1 stalemate at lowly Lecce on Saturday, but the defending champions still stay top in Serie A as nearest rivals Inter Milan drew 2-2 with Parma.

Both goals in Lecce came from penalties with Paulo Dybala’s strike from the spot after 50 minutes cancelled out by Marco Mancosu’s six minutes later as the promoted southerners grabbed their first point at home this season.

Unbeaten Juve have 23 points from nine games, one more than Antonio Conte’s Inter, who let the champions off the hook to stay second.

Ronaldo, 34, did not make the trip to the heel of Italy after Tuesday’s 2-1 Champions League win over Lokomotiv Moscow, and ahead of two Serie A matches in four days next week, and a reverse fixture against the Russians on November 6.

“Ronaldo was tired both physically and mentally, so it would not have helped to make this journey,” said Juve coach Maurizio Sarri. “When a player expresses his fatigue, it’s only right to give him a rest. Even without him we created ten chances on goal, but weren’t able to finish them off. We let ourselves be drawn into a dirty game.”

Gonzalo Higuain thought he gave Juve the lead in the 15th minute but his goal was ruled out for offside.

Juve were awarded a spot kick five minutes after the break for a lunge by Lecce defender Jacopo Petriccione on Miralem Pjanic. Dybala struck the ball into the bottom right corner.

However, Lecce leveled just six minutes later with a similar penalty from Mancosu following a Matthijs De Ligt handball.

Federico Bernardeschi should have restored Juve’s lead but he hit the post.

Higuain ended the match with his head covered in bandages after a collision with Lecce goalkeeper Gabriel left him bleeding from his forehead.

Juve used up their three substitutions so Higuain continued but the Argentina forward had to be taken off on a stretcher after the final whistle and went to a hospital for tests.

Inter, meanwhile, looked sluggish after their 2-0 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund three days ago as Yann Karamoh scored one goal and set up another to prevent his parent club from going to the top of the table.

Karamoh joined Parma on loan from Inter in July for one year with an obligation to make the deal permanent. And he helped Parma completely turn the match around within seven minutes of going behind to a deflected Antonio Candreva shot.

Karamoh scored the equaliser in the 26th minute with a stunning curled effort, and raised his hands in apology to the crowd, which applauded in response.

He up Parma’s second four minutes later, racing from almost the halfway line before rolling the ball across to an unmarked Gervinho.

Inter levelled in the 53rd when Romelu Lukaku controlled a Candreva pass and swiveled to

fire it into the net from close range. The goal was initially ruled out for offside but given after a lengthy wait for review by the video assistant referee.

Thiago Motta got off to a winning start as Genoa coach with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over Brescia in a match where all of his team’s goals came from second-half substitutes, a first in Serie A history.

Sandro Tonali gave Brescia the lead in the 34th with a stunning free kick from the left into the top far corner for his first goal in Serie A.

But Colombian Kevin Agudelo pulled the westerners level after 66 minutes on his Serie A debut, Christian Kouame acrobatically added a second on 75 minutes and Goran Pandev, who previously played alongside Motta at Inter Milan, sealed the result in the 79th.

Motta, who had previously coached only Paris Saint-Germain’s Under-19 squad, replaced the fired Aurelio Andreazzoli on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2019