Juventus top in Italy with Verona draw as Milan cruise

Juventus drew 1-1 at Verona on Saturday to climb provisionally top of Serie A while AC Milan closed to within a point of the Turin giants with a 3-0 success at Udinese.

Igor Tudor’s men were bidding to maintain a perfect start to the domestic campaign and got off the mark in the 19th minute through a long-range effort from Francisco Conceicao.

Hosts Verona drew level before the break when Gift Orban converted a penalty, and believed they were on for their first win of the season when Suat Serdar headed home in the second half, only to be defied by VAR after an offside in the build-up.

Juve’s Tudor described the decision to award Verona a penalty as “incomprehensible” while he also felt that Orban should have been sent off for an elbow on Federico Gatti.

“We lacked energy, but I have nothing to reproach my players for, they gave everything they had,” said Tudor. 

Juve beat Inter Milan 4-3 last week and then drew 4-4 at home to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek, and looked flat towards the end of the match on Saturday.

But they top Serie A on 10 points, one ahead of Napoli, with Antonio Conte’s champions taking on promoted Pisa on Monday, and Milan.

Christian Pulisic was the star for Milan, scoring a brace in Udine, while French midfielder Youssouf Fofana notched the other goal.

Pulisic poached the opening goal inside the box five minutes before the break and he then robbed Jesper Karlstrom in the first minute of the second period to tee up Youssouf to fire in the second.

Milan sealed the win on 53 minutes with a counter-attack as Adrien Rabiot fed Pulisic to score his second.

It was a third straight victory for Milan after their shock home defeat to newly-promoted Cremonese in their season opener and moved them above Napoli on goals scored, if only for 48 hours.

Earlier, Bologna came from a goal down to beat Patrick Vieira’s Genoa 2-1 with a last-gasp penalty.

Icelandic midfielder Mikael Egill Ellertsson blasted Genoa in front with a powerful 63rd-minute strike after weaving into the box down the right. 

But a delightful back-heel from Santiago Castro dragged Bologna level, before a handball deep into time added on gifted the hosts a penalty and Riccardo Orsolini’s spot-kick sealed the three points.