AC Milan Stalemate Piles on Misery for Juventus

Early strike: Juventus forward Alvaro Morata celebrates his fourth-minute opener. Isabella BONOTTO AFP
Early strike: Juventus forward Alvaro Morata celebrates his fourth-minute opener. Isabella BONOTTO AFP
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AC Milan Stalemate Piles on Misery for Juventus

Early strike: Juventus forward Alvaro Morata celebrates his fourth-minute opener. Isabella BONOTTO AFP
Early strike: Juventus forward Alvaro Morata celebrates his fourth-minute opener. Isabella BONOTTO AFP

Juventus were left struggling in the unlikely surroundings of Serie A's bottom three on Sunday after a 1-1 draw with AC Milan kept them searching for a first league win this season.

Alvaro Morata's fourth-minute goal gave Juve the lead but Ante Rebic headed in a 76th-minute equalizer as Milan ended the weekend in second place on goal difference behind city rivals Inter who crushed Bologna 6-1 on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported.

Milan could have won the match in the dying moments but Juve keeper Wojciech Szczesny pulled off a brilliant point-blank save to deny Pierre Kalulu.

Juventus, still reeling from the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, are 18th with just two points from four games with only Cagliari and Salernitana propping them up.

Coach Massimiliano Allegri had harsh words for some of his stars.

"You have to be determined, to bring home the tackle, keep focused. This is part of the general growth process of some players," he said.

"I will admit that I made mistakes on the substitutions, I got it wrong. I should've put more defensive players on and put the 1-0 lead under lock and key, so I take responsibility for that."

Milan, missing both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olivier Giroud, dropped their first league points of the season.

However, they will be relieved not to have lost back-to-back games having gone down to Liverpool in the Champions League in midweek.

Spanish international Morata temporarily allowed Juventus fans to forget about Ronaldo when he sped away from Theo Hernandez before coolly slotting the ball past Mike Maignan in goal.

Milan only threatened through three long distance attempts from Sandro Tonali in the fitst half.

But Croatian winger Rebic preserved Milan's unbeaten league start by heading in a Tonali corner with 14 minutes left.

"We came here to win the game," said Milan coach Stefano Pioli told DAZN.

"Juventus did better in the first 20 minutes, were more determined and focused, but we continued playing and did much better towards the end with chances to win, so it was overall a positive performance."

Roma dropped their first points in Serie A under Jose Mourinho as Verona came from behind to earn new coach Igor Tudor a 3-2 victory on his debut.

Lorenzo Pellegrini's clever backheel flick gave visitors Roma a half-time lead in the pouring rain as they sought a fourth successive win to start the season.

- Mourinho beaten -Antonin Barak equalized for Verona shortly after the interval and Gianluca Caprari put the hosts ahead with a precise finish five minutes later.

Ivan Ilic turned a Pellegrini cross into his own goal to bring Roma level before the hour, but Davide Faraoni's brilliant volley secured the win for Verona to halt a run of three straight losses.

"I knew their qualities, even before the change in coach," Mourinho told DAZN.

"They'd already posed big problems to their opponents. And when there's a coaching change there's often a reaction mentally, it can happen."

Roma's city rivals Lazio needed a late goal from Danilo Cataldi to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Cagliari.

Ciro Immobile struck for the fifth time in four games as Lazio went ahead just before the break.

Joao Pedro's looping header pegged Lazio back right at the start of the second half, with Keita Balde then firing home against his former club to put Cagliari on top.

But the Sardinian club couldn't hold on for victory in Walter Mazzarri's first game in charge as Cataldi fired into the top corner seven minutes from time to rescue Lazio.

Venezia's first Serie A home match since the 2001-02 season ended in a crushing 2-1 loss to Spezia.

Simone Bastoni curled in a sensational effort as Spezia grabbed an early lead at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, an intriguing ground set on the south-eastern tip of Venice's main archipelago.

Pietro Ceccaroni headed Venezia level on the hour but Mehdi Bourabia's brilliant injury-time strike from distance claimed Thiago Motta's Spezia a first win.



French Monuments in Trouble While PSG Prepare for Champions League Final

Saint-Etienne and Lyon, who are local rivals, are facing up to the end of the French season with trepidation. JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP/File
Saint-Etienne and Lyon, who are local rivals, are facing up to the end of the French season with trepidation. JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP/File
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French Monuments in Trouble While PSG Prepare for Champions League Final

Saint-Etienne and Lyon, who are local rivals, are facing up to the end of the French season with trepidation. JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP/File
Saint-Etienne and Lyon, who are local rivals, are facing up to the end of the French season with trepidation. JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP/File

While Paris Saint-Germain are looking forward to the Champions League final and have already wrapped up another Ligue 1 title, two of France's biggest clubs with proud European track records are facing the end of the season with trepidation.

PSG beat Arsenal in their semi-final on Wednesday to set up a final at the end of May in Munich against Inter Milan, the second in their history after a defeat by Bayern Munich in 2020.

It will be the eighth time that a French side has appeared in the final of Europe's elite club competition, with Marseille in 1993 still the only team from the country to have won the trophy.

Saint-Etienne were beaten finalists in 1976, when they lost 1-0 to Franz Beckenbauer's Bayern in Glasgow.

Almost half a century later, they stand on the brink of being relegated to Ligue 2, just a year after coming back up and then being bought by Canadian billionaire Larry Tanenbaum.

With two games of the season remaining they sit in the automatic relegation places, above only a Montpellier side who are already down.

Les Verts, whose tally of 10 French titles is bettered only by PSG on 13, are four points adrift of Le Havre in the relegation play-off spot and five away from outright safety.

That means a defeat away to Reims on Saturday will send them down, while a draw will effectively mean relegation too due to their poor goal difference.

However, a win will keep their hopes alive going into the last day, provided they also get some favours from elsewhere.

"The whole season has been a struggle and a fight for our lives. There is nothing new about that," said Saint-Etienne's Norwegian coach, Eirik Horneland.

"We cannot wait for others anymore. We have to help ourselves. We need two victories to stay in the league."

Saint-Etienne's great rivals Lyon are seventh with two games to play, their hopes of Champions League qualification were dealt a huge blow when they lost 2-1 to Lens last weekend.

Lyon appointed Paulo Fonseca as coach at the end of January in the belief that he could take the seven-time French champions back to Europe's top table.

However, they were three points off the top four then and they still are now, meaning it appears a first Champions League campaign since they got to the semi-finals in 2020 is probably beyond them.

Saturday's trip to third-placed Monaco is a game they simply must win, with the consequences of failing to reach the Champions League potentially disastrous for Lyon.

The club owned by the American John Textor's Eagle Football Group have huge debts and were warned earlier this season by the French footballing authorities that they would be relegated if drastic action was not taken to reduce their liabilities.

"We need to win our last two games and then see where that leaves us," Fonseca said this week.

"It is six years since the club qualified for the Champions League so this is important.

"I want to be the coach who takes OL (Lyon) back there. It will be hard but it is possible."

Player to watch: Andre Ayew

The 35-year-old Ghanaian is hoping to fire Le Havre to survival for the second season running.

On Saturday he will come up against Marseille, the club where he starred at the beginning of his career, making over 200 appearances. It is also the club where his father Abedi Pele played, winning the Champions League in 1993.

Ayew is in line to make the 500th league appearance of his career, spread across stints in England, Qatar and Türkiye as well as in France.