MILAN, Aug 23: Injury-hit Juventus clearly missed Ángel Di María as it was held to a 0-0 draw at Sampdoria in Serie A.
Di María had added much-needed flair to the Juventus side and scored on debut last weekend as well as providing an assist as the Bianconeri opened the season with a 3-0 win over Sassuolo.
However, he went off injured in that match and could also miss next weekend’s key game against Roma, which beat newly promoted Cremonese 1-0 on Monday to make it two wins out of two.
Juventus was also missing Paul Pogba as well as Federico Chiesa, Kaio Jorge and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, while veteran defender Leonardo Bonucci was only fit for a place on the bench.
Sampdoria hit the woodwork in the opening few minutes. Shortly afterward, Juventus almost scored an own-goal as Bianconeri forward Dusan Vlahovic kicked a corner onto his own post.
Juventus thought it had broken the deadlock in the 65th minute but Adrien Rabiot’s strike was disallowed because Vlahovic was in an offside position.
Juventus’ new signing Filip Kostic almost won it right at the death, but his effort was parried by goalkeeper Emil Audero. (AP)
