Milan (AFP) – Paulo Dybala and Dusan Vlahovic scored the two goals to send bottom club Salernitana 2-0 on Sunday and move within a point of Inter Milan’s dominance in Serie A.
Back in the 11 start after injury, Dybala opened the scoring after five minutes thanks to help from Vlahovic.
Juventus put themselves in fourth place in the table and were far behind Inter third. But Massimiliano Allegri’s team is seven points behind leaders AC Milan.
The Bianconeri will face Inter – the team that has broken their run of nine consecutive Serie A players – after the international break.
Salernitana remained at the bottom of the standings, nine points behind the safety zone.
Determined to put their Champions League elimination behind them in the middle of the week, Juventus lost to Villarreal, extending 15 games unbeaten in the domestic championship.
It wasn’t long before the score became uneven when Vlahovic controlled a cross from Colombian Juan Guillermo Cuadrado and put in an excellent pass to define Argentine Dybala from a difficult angle.
Dybala was very active and had two more chances to increase, including one in which he outplayed rival goalkeeper Luigi Seppi in a one-handed save.
Juventus signed the second in the 29th with a strong header from Vlahovic to the center of Mattia de Sciglio.
The Bianconeri fell back in the second half and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had to intervene more than necessary.
Other results
Some errors in the first half facilitated Francesco Caputo’s goals as Venezia lost 2-0 to Sampdoria. Venice was three points away from redemption, while Sampdoria was seven points away from the last three.
Hellas Verona drew 1-1 away to Empoli. And Argentine striker Giovanni Simeone missed twice when he paid the same penalty for Verona. The first was saved by goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario to invade the area. Simeone crashed the second shot to the post.
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