MILAN: Juventus fell to a 1-0 loss at Sassuolo after a second-half goal by substitute Gregoire Defrel earned the points in Serie A on Sunday, condemning Massimiliano Allegri’s side to successive league defeats for the first time this season.

Juve, seventh in the standings on 44 points, missed the chance to close the gap to the top six and remain four points behind Atalanta.

For Juventus this was their first consecutive defeat in Serie A since October 2021.

Juve lost 2-1 at Lazio in their last league outing.Juventus, for whom winning the Europa League remains their most likely route into next season’s Champions League, on Thursday face Sporting in Lisbon in their Europa league return leg before hosting runaway Serie A leaders Napoli next Sunday.

Juventus, dressed in a pink and blue strip, started with Arkadiusz Milik and Dusan Vlahovic up front in a drab first half.

Shortly after the break Drefel pounced on an error, pivoted, and fired a low hard shot past Mattia Perin in the Juve goal.

Juve came close to finding an equaliser nine minutes later through Adrien Rabiot who leapt inside the box to connect with Angel Di Maria’s corner but keeper Andrea Consigli superbly turned the ball over the bar.

Allegri brought on Paul Pogba in the final 10 minutes for the Frenchman’s third league appearance of an injury-plagued season but the Turin side did not come any closer to scoring.

With all top sides failing to register a positive result this weekend, Jose Mourinho’s Roma bucked the trend by beating Udinese 3-0 with Eduardo Bove slamming home a loose ball after a saved penalty for the opener.

Lorenzo Pellegrini and Tammy Abraham also scored as Roma consolidated third place, five points ahead of Inter in fifth.

Elsewhere, sixteenth-placed Lecce, five points above the relegation zone, drew 1-1 at home to Sampdoria who are rooted to the bottom of the table 10 points adrift of the safety line, while Torino, in 11th, had the same scoreline against 15th-placed Salernitana.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023