February 17, (THEWILL) – Juventus narrowed the gap in Serie A to eight points with a narrow 1-0 victory over title contenders Inter Milan at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
Francisco Conceicao emerged the hero for the hosts with his decisive 74th-minute strike, which prevented Simone Inzaghi’s men from overtaking Napoli at the summit of Italian football.
Inter commenced the contest with attacking intent, creating early opportunities through Mehdi Taremi’s acrobatic attempt and Denzel Dumfries’ effort that sailed over the crossbar.
The Turin side responded with Nico Gonzalez forcing Yann Sommer into an impressive double save, first from distance and subsequently denying Conceicao from the resulting rebound.
The decisive moment arrived in the 74th minute when Randal Kolo Muani expertly evaded three defenders before finding Conceicao, who calmly placed his left-footed finish beyond Sommer.
Teun Koopmeiners nearly doubled Juventus’ advantage late in the proceedings, but his attempt was blocked on the goal line by a combination of Sommer and Dumfries.
The result continues a troubling pattern for Inter, who have now suffered consecutive away defeats in Serie A for the first time since February and March 2023.
In contrast, Juventus maintained their impressive home record, remaining the only unbeaten team on home soil in the competition this season, albeit with seven draws from their thirteen fixtures at the Allianz Stadium.
Thiago Motta’s defensive approach continues to yield results, with Juve recording their third consecutive league victory with a clean sheet.
This defensive solidity has been the foundation of their campaign, with no other Serie A team keeping more than Juventus’ 12 clean sheets throughout the 2024/2025 season.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
