Milan, Oct 16: Juventus relieved a bit of the pressure on coach Massimiliano Allegri by beating Torino 1-0 in a Serie A derby.
Dusan Vlahovic scored 16 minutes from time for a Juventus side which has been struggling.
Juventus had been in a punitive retreat following an embarrassing defeat at Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League on Tuesday, three days after a loss to AC Milan. Juventus moved up to seventh, eight points behind Atalanta, which topped the table after a 2-1 home win over Sassuolo.
There were few clear goal-scoring opportunities in the derby. Juventus had a triple chance shortly before halftime but Torino goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic parried Vlahovic, then Manuel Locatelli on the rebound, and Adrien Rabiot from distance.
Juventus broke the deadlock in the 74th when a corner was floated in from the right and flicked on by Danilo for Vlahovic to turn in at the back post.
Meanwhile, a brilliant goal saw Atalanta recover from going behind to move a point clear of Napoli.
Ademola Lookman scored what proved to be the winner 30 seconds after the break. The Nigeria winger collected a throughball from Brandon Soppy, bamboozled his way past a defender and curled a shot into the top left corner.
Georgios Kyriakopoulos scored the opener for Sassuolo four minutes from the interval but Mario Pasalic levelled on the stroke of halftime, following another assist from Soppy.
Domenico Berardi made his first appearance since the end of August as a second-half substitute and almost equalized for Sassuolo but his ferocious effort crashed off the crossbar. His return lasted just 22 minutes before he went off with another injury.
Monza endured its first defeat under coach Raffael Palladino, 1-0 at Empoli.
Palladino won his first three games in charge, starting against Juventus before the international break for Monza’s first ever Serie A win.
But Nicolas Haas netted in the 11th minute to end that streak for Silvio Berlusconi’s side.
Empoli also hit the post and had a goal ruled out for offside early in the second half. (AP)
