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Serie A champions Juventus drew 1-1 against Benevento on Saturday, their fifth draw in nine league games this season, after resting their talisman forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
Álvaro Morata gave Juventus a lead in the 21st minute, but was sent off for dissent after the final whistle, as tempers flared at the end of an annoying second half. Gaetano Letizia scored Benevento’s equalizer in injury time in the first half.
Juve’s performance raised further questions about the team’s reliance on Ronaldo, 35, who is their top scorer in Serie A with eight goals despite having played just five games.
Although still undefeated in Serie A, Juve have yet to win a league game this season without Ronaldo and their performances have been laborious.
The Turin side are fifth with 17 points, three behind leaders AC Milan, who play at home to Fiorentina on Sunday. Benevento is in the middle table with 10 points.
Filippo Inzaghi and Andrea Pirlo, former teammates of Italy and AC Milan, coaches of Benevento and Juventus respectively, met on the touchline for the first time.
As in the rest of the Serie A games at the weekend, there was a minute of silence for Diego Maradona, who died on Wednesday at the age of 60, and the game was stopped to pay tribute to the great Argentine in minute ten.
Federico Chiesa mounted Juve’s goal with a majestic cross pass to free Morata and the Spaniard slid past his mark and scored with an angled shot that went off the post.
Paulo Dybala should have added a second, but fired wide before Benevento achieved his surprise tie within three minutes of first-half stoppage time.
Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny made a brilliant save to deny Pasquale Schiattarella, but the resulting corner was poorly cleared by Arthur and the ball fell perfectly for Letizia to get into the net.
Juventus had more possession in the second half but did little with it, while Benevento looked dangerous when he took the lead.
Benevento had six players booked and Juventus one in the second half before Morata lost his cool and was fired.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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