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Juventus‘Faint hopes of catching the Serie A leader, Inter suffered a severe blow on Sunday when they were beaten 1-0 at home by the fight Benevento.
Adolfo Gaich scored for the visitors in the 69th minute, pouncing on a sloppy pass from Juve midfielder Arthur Melo to score the only goal of the game. The hosts created chances but failed to beat goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo as Benevento ended an 11-match winless streak to boost their hopes of survival.
Andrea Pirlo’s team had been undefeated in their last five league games, but came in second behind Benevento coach Filippo Inzaghi, his former Milan teammate. The defeat leaves Juve in third place, 10 points behind Inter with 11 games to play, but Pirlo was unwilling to give up the title after the game.
“We must continue to believe in the title, our objective has not changed,” Pirlo told Sky Italia. “Our mentality must change … today there was not too much pressure, there was a duty to play better and unfortunately we had a bad game in all aspects.
The defeat increases the pressure on Pirlo. “My future?” he said. “The club will decide. I will continue working day by day, game after game, to try to do my best. Then, in the end, everyone can draw their own conclusions. “
Before the game, Juve presented Cristiano Ronaldo with a special jersey celebrating his 770 career goals. The president of the club, Andrea Agnelli, presented the striker with a shirt with the number 770 and the word ‘GOAT’ [greatest of all time]. Ronaldo failed to add to his account on a sobering afternoon for the defending champs.
Atalanta boosted his top-four hopes with a 2-0 win in Verona. Ruslan Malinovskiy put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute, before setting Duván Zapata for the second goal nine minutes later.
Atalanta moves five points ahead of Roma and Napoli, who meet in the capital on Sunday night. Seventh place Lazio are one point behind after Adam Marusic scored the only away goal in Udinese, while Antonio Candreva shot Sampdoria to victory over Torino.
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In La Liga, the leaders Atletico Madrid earned a vital 1-0 home win for Alaves thanks to a late penalty save by Jan Oblak. Atlético took the lead on 54 ‘when Luis Suárez headed in with a cross from Kieran Trippier, but Diego Simeone’s men were happy to try to defend their advantage and almost paid a high price when Stefan Savic was penalized for breaking into Luis Rioja in 86 ‘. Oblak launched himself to the other side of the goal to deflect Joselu’s penalty with his left hand.
In the Bundesliga, Hertha Berlin they raised their hopes of getting over the slump with a 3-0 win over Leverkusen, whose four main ambitions are fast disappearing. The hosts scored all three in the opening 33 minutes, with Deyovaisio Zeefuik, Matheus Cunha and Jhon Córdoba all in goal, while Peter Bosz’s team held seven points behind Eintracht Frankfurt in fourth place.
Robert Glatzel scored within 30 seconds for other fighters Mainz in their 2-1 win in Hoffenheim, a result that sees Cologne falling into the relegation playoff spot, just above Arminia Bielefeld and doomed Schalke.
