Juventus’ title hopes in tatters after struggling shock residence loss to Benevento

Benevento dented Juventus’s Serie A title hopes on Sunday when Adolfo Gaich’s second-half strike sealed a shock 1-0 victory in Turin and ended the relegation battlers’ 11-match winless run.
The Argentine pounced on a careless go from Juve midfielder Arthur Melo to fireplace within the decisive aim after 69 minutes, and the toothless hosts did not discover a well beyond goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo.

FT: Juventus 0-1 Benevento 😳
Benevento had been simply 4 factors above the relegation zone earlier than the sport and had not received in 11 Serie A video games. pic.twitter.com/LDcJML3CxR
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 21, 2021
The defeat left champions Juve in third place, 10 factors behind leaders Inter Milan with 11 video games remaining.
Benevento’s survival hopes had been boosted as they moved seven factors away from the relegation zone in sixteenth place.
“This was a game that marks a turning point; we had the right attitude,” mentioned Benevento captain Nicolas Viola.
“We are overjoyed. We are a humble team and when we find courage we are hard to beat, we make the opposition play badly.”
Andrea Pirlo’s Juve had been unbeaten of their earlier 5 league video games however he couldn’t prevail over his former AC Milan staff mate Filippo Inzaghi within the opposing dugout, regardless of the hosts mustering 9 pictures on the right track to Benevento’s one.
Juve began on the entrance foot as Cristiano Ronaldo flashed a shot vast and Montipo denied Alvaro Morata with a diving save.
The referee awarded Juve a penalty for handball however overturned the choice following a VAR evaluate, and Ronaldo discovered the online solely to be denied by the offside flag.
The Portuguese striker, who scored a hat-trick in opposition to Cagliari in his final recreation, was hungry for a aim and stung Montipo’s palms earlier than volleying an effort narrowly vast on the flip.

Juventus introduced Cristiano Ronaldo with a GOAT shirt earlier than kick-off after which misplaced at residence to little Benevento. Such a flawed challenge… #JuventusBenevento pic.twitter.com/AV0aAZQIbM
— Ben Hayward (@bghayward) March 21, 2021
But a catastrophic mistake from Arthur gifted the affected person guests the lead, because the Brazilian’s slack go throughout his personal penalty field was intercepted by Gaich, who completed into the underside nook.
Ronaldo was Juve’s greatest risk as they pushed for a late equaliser, however he couldn’t beat Montipo. The goalkeeper caught out a leg to disclaim one effort earlier than parrying one other which fell into the trail of Danilo however the defender blasted the rebound over.
Elsewhere, Atalanta drew degree with Juve on 55 factors and strengthened their grip on fourth place with a 2-0 win at Hellas Verona because of a Ruslan Malinovskyi penalty and a Duvan Zapata strike within the first half.
Adam Marusic’s curling strike earned Lazio a 1-0 win at Udinese to place the seventh-placed Romans one level behind AS Roma and Napoli, whereas Antonio Candreva struck the winner as midtable Sampdoria defeated Seventeenth-placed Torino 1-0 in Genoa.