BEVERLY HILLS, October 25, (THEWILL) –Â In a game clearly missing the incisive involvement of the imperial Cristiano Ronaldo, Dejan Kulusevski, the Swedish right winger, spared Juventus their first Serie A defeat of the season as his late goal salvaged a 1-1 draw against Hellas Verona at home in the Allianz Stadium on Sunday.
Andrea Pirlo’s charges were constrained to a disappointing draw by the same scoreline by Crotone at the Stadio Ezio Scida last time out and looked likely to lose when Andrea Favilli put the Verona visitors ahead after an hour.
Juve were uncharacteristically sluggish in the early stages and it was not until the 20th minute that they cracked a first attempt on goal. Verona keeper Marco Silvestri got down swiftly to deny Federico Bernardeschi after a swift counter-attacking move had split the visitors defence apart.
Colombian midfielder Juan Cuadrado was presented with the best opportunity to open the scoring just before the break, but, after another impressive move, he thundered his 10-yard effort against the crossbar.
Spanish striker Alvaro Morata believed he had given Juve the lead on the stroke of half-time, however VAR ruled out his sublime scooped finish for offside.
Juve failed to come alive at the start of the second half and were duly punished on the hour mark when Favilli stroked home from the middle of the penalty area after being well teed up by Italian central midfielder Mattia Zaccagni.
Paulo Dybala – making his debut Serie A appearance of the season – drove a deflected effort from distance against the crossbar 15 minutes from time. Fortunately, Kulusevski drew the hosts level a few moments later after bamboozling Italian right winger Marco Faraoni and curling into Silvestri’s bottom-right corner.
In a flurry of late opportunities, Juve’s Adrien Rabiot flashed a powerful drive agonisingly wide soon after, but they ultimately fell short of expectations and Verona held on to the claim a deserved point from the draw.
Juve next host Spanish side Barcelona in a mouth-watering Champions League clash on Wednesday before an away fixture against Spezia in Serie A on Sunday. Verona, on the other hand, face Venezia in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday and Benevento in the league five days later.
