MILAN, Dec 12: Juventus’ domestic problems deepened as it was held at relegation-threatened Venezia to 1-1 in Serie A on Saturday.
Mattia Aramu scored in the second half for Venezia to cancel out Álvaro Morata’s opener. Juventus qualified for the round of 16 of the Champions League as a group winner midweek but it has been a different story in Serie A.
The Bianconeri were six points below fourth-placed Atalanta. Venezia inched six points above the drop zone after ending a run of three straight losses.
Juventus took a deserved lead in the 32nd minute when Luca Pellegrini crossed in from the left for Morata to flick in at the near post.
Juventus sat back too much and Venezia leveled 10 minutes into the second half as the Bianconeri failed to clear danger on the edge of the area and the ball came through to Aramu, who fired into the bottom left corner.
Also, Zlatan Ibrahimović prevented Milan’s week from going from bad to worse.
Milan appeared to be heading for defeat in Udine until Ibrahimović netted an acrobatic equalizer in stoppage time. A cross into the area was knocked down and the veteran forward flicked it up and volleyed it in with a scissor kick.
But a howler from Ismaël Bennacer allowed Beto to spring the offside trap and sprint clear towards goal. Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan pulled off a desperate save but the ricochet off him and Fikayo Tomori fell kindly to Beto, who fired Udinese in front in the 17th minute.
Elsewhere, Dušan Vlahović scored two to help Fiorentina beat bottom-placed Salernitana 4-0. (AP)
