Hellas Verona 2-1 Juventus: Giovanni Simeone double condemns Juve to fourth Serie A defeat of the season
ByTNT Sports
Updated 31/10/2021 at 11:50 GMT
Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, Serie A: Hellas Verona 2, (Simeone 11’, 14’), Juventus 1 (McKennie 80’)
Verona players celebrate
Image credit: Getty Images
Giovanni Simeone's brace proved decisive as Hellas Verona inflicted a second successive league defeat on Juventus to increase the pressure on Massimiliano Allegri.
Allegri made six changes to the side that suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Sassuolo on Wednesday night - but the Juventus boss did not get the response he demanded.
Fresh from scoring all four goals in a 4-1 victory over Lazio, Simeone continued his rich vein of form with a quickfire first-half double.
It was entirely of Juventus's own making as Arthur lost the ball in dangerous territory, and when Gianluca Caprari got in behind, Wojciech Szczesny could only parry his shot into the path of Simeone, who applied the finish.
The 26-year-old spectacularly doubled his tally three minutes later, turning into space and curling an unstoppable shot into the top corner from 25 yards.
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Giovanni Simeone celebrates his second goal
Image credit: Getty Images
And although Juventus might have halved the deficit when Paulo Dybala struck the crossbar, they deserved trailed 2-0 at the break.
Weston McKennie almost scored with his first touch after coming on as a second-half substitute but Lorenzo Montipo was at full stretch to keep it out.
However, there was nothing the Verona goalkeeper could have done to keep out McKennie's venomous shot, as the substitute halved the deficit and set up a grandstand finish with 10 minutes remaining.
Juventus threw bodies forward in desperate search for an equaliser and their best moment dropped to Dybala, but there was no way past the inspired Montipo.
There were contrasting emotions as the referee called time on a memorable game, as Verona leapfrogged Juventus into seventh place in the Serie A table, with the Old Lady dropping to ninth.
TALKING POINT - The heat turns up on Allegri
And so the heat turns up a notch on Allegri.
After inflicting defeats on Roma and Lazio already this season, there was always a fear in the Juventus ranks that they, too, might get turned over by giant killers Verona, but no one expected it would be so easy for Tudor's side.
Having learnt nothing from the defeat to Sassuolo, the Juventus boss stayed faithful to the 4-4-2 system so clearly exposed only three days earlier. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face - as they say - and when Verona struck first, Allegri didn't have a Plan B. Not until it was too late, at least.
Four of Juventus's seven wins in this season have come courtesy of 1-0 wins. But when the opposition nets first, the Old Lady tend to have a huge problem. It's a strategy that worked very effectively when Allegri had the players with the quality to carry it out - but the squad of 2021 is very different to that of 2019.
MAN OF THE MATCH - Giovanni Simeone (Verona)
Six goals in seven days is just the perfect week for a striker, isn't it?
PLAYER RATINGS
Verona: Montipo 8, Dawidowicz 7, Gunter 7, Casale 7, Faraoni 7, Tameze 7, Veloso 7, Lazovic 7, Barak 7, Caprari 8, Simeone 9*.. subs: Sutalo 5 Ceccherini 5, Kalinic N/A, Bessa 5.
Juventus: Szczesny 6, Danilo 5, Bonucci 5, Chiellini 5, Alex Sandro 5, Cuadrado 5, Bentancur 5, Arthur 5, Rabiot 5, Dybala 7, Morata 6.. subs: Locatelli 5, McKennie 8, Kulusevski 5, Bernardeschi 5.
KEY MOMENTS
11' - GOAL! Verona 1-0 Juventus (Giovanni Simeone): Verona lead and it had to be Simeone! Juventus fail to clear their lines, the loose ball drops to Caprari who is through on goal but Szczensy makes the save. However, he can only parry it into the path of Simeone who is left with a simple tap in!
14' - GOAL! Verona 2-0 Juventus (Giovanni Simeone): You aren't going to believe this! Verona are two ahead - Simeone grabs his second of the afternoon! And this one is special. From 25 yards out, he's allowed to turn into space and curl a stunning shot into the top corner!
80' - GOAL! Verona 2-1 Juventus (Weston McKennie): Juventus have hope! McKennie is left all alone on the edge of the penalty area and he has time to pick his spot, firing high into the top corner! Juventus have 10 minutes to try to salvage at least a point!
KEY STATS
- Juventus have conceded at least 15 goals in their first 11 Serie A matches of the season for the first time since 1961/62, when they ended at 12th place of the table.
- Since Igor Tudor became the Verona manager, only AC Milan and Napoli (19 each) have gained more Serie A points than Hellas (15).
- Giovanni Simeone is just the seventh player in the history of the Serie A to have scored two or more goals against Juventus for three different sides (Genoa, Cagliari and Verona) - the last player to do that was Enrico Chiesa.
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