Rome (dpa) – Juventus ace Cristiano Ronaldo beefed up his top scorer tally but saw the champions held 1-1 at tough underdogs Verona Saturday in the Italian Serie A.
The Portuguese ace netted his 19th goal early in the second half off Federico Chiesa’s low feed but the hosts levelled when Antonin Barak nodded home in the 77th minute before his team-mate Darko Lazovic came close with a firm shot.
Juve opened the game with Aaron Ramsey and Chiesa shots saved before their keeper Wojciech Szczesny deflected a Davide Faraoni header onto the right post.
Juve struggled as they missed Paulo Dybala and Alvaro Morata up front as defenders Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci were also out with the suspended Danilo.
They stayed third seven points adrift of leaders Inter Milan, who play Sunday at home to Genoa. Verona are ninth.
“Our physical form is the key,” said Barak, a Czech midfielder who with six goals is now the Veronese’s top scorer. “It’s good that we can beef up our game with the reserves. We must continue to play our fast second halves.”
Lazio stunned at Bologna as Immobile misses penalty
Earlier action saw Bologna beat Lazio 2-0 to consolidate their mid-table standing as the guests missed a possible opener from the spot.
Lazio skipper Ciro Immobile had a penalty saved two minutes before the Romans fell behind to a tap-in from Ibrahima Mbaye. Nicola Sansone’s smashing volley then secured the win in the second half.
The Bolognese moved to 11th place in the congested second-half of the table, while Lazio stayed sixth.
Immobile, the 2020 Golden Boot winner with a Serie A record of 36 goals, remained rooted on 14 alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luis Muriel.
Emmanuel Gyasi’s brace helped Spezia bounce back from a two-goal deficit to salvage a 2-2 home draw against Parma in a lower-reaches fixture.
Gyasi’s two short-range deflections after the break levelled Yann Karamoh’s great shot and Hernani’s flick as the fifth-last newcomers went 10 points clear of the three-team drop zone, where Parma stayed second-last.
Spezia sit level on points with Udinese, Fiorentina and Benevento, three points behind Bologna.
Six games complete matchday 24 on Sunday, while Torino v Sassuolo was moved to March 17 after several cases of coronavirus at the Turin side.
