By News18,Vivek Ganapathy
Copyright news18
Juventus climbed to the top of the Serie A table provisionally following their 1-1 draw at Hellas Verona on Sunday, while AC Milan jumped to within one point of the table-toppers with their 3-0 triumph over Udinese on the road.
Gift Orban’s strike for Verona cancelled out Chico Conceicao’s opener for Juve, while Christian Pulisic’s scored twice and Youssouf Fofana netted the other in Milan’s 3-0 win over the Udine-based unit.
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Igor Tudor’s team aimed to maintain their flawless start to the domestic campaign, and Francisco Conceicao kicked things off in the 19th minute with a long-range strike.
The hosts, Verona, equalised before halftime when Gift Orban scored a penalty. They thought they were on track for their first win of the season when Suat Serdar headed in a second-half goal, only for VAR to rule it out due to an offside in the build-up.
Tudor described the decision to award Verona a penalty as “incomprehensible” and believed that Orban should have been sent off for elbowing Federico Gatti.
“We lacked energy, but I have nothing to reproach my players for. They gave everything they had,” said Tudor.
Juve had beaten Inter Milan 4-3 the previous week and then drew 4-4 at home against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League midweek, appearing fatigued towards the end of Saturday’s match.
Nevertheless, they lead Serie A with 10 points, one ahead of Napoli. Antonio Conte’s champions will face promoted Pisa on Monday, as well as Milan.
Christian Pulisic was the star for Milan, scoring twice in Udine, with French midfielder Youssouf Fofana adding another goal.
Pulisic scored the first goal inside the box five minutes before halftime and then stole the ball from Jesper Karlstrom in the first minute of the second half to set up Youssouf for the second.
Milan sealed the win at 53 minutes with a counter-attack, as Adrien Rabiot assisted Pulisic for his second goal.
This marked Milan’s third consecutive victory after their surprising home defeat to newly-promoted Cremonese in the season opener, moving them above Napoli on goal difference for 48 hours.
Earlier, Bologna came from behind to defeat Patrick Vieira’s Genoa 2-1 with a last-minute penalty.
Icelandic midfielder Mikael Egill Ellertsson put Genoa ahead with a powerful strike in the 63rd minute after weaving into the box from the right.
However, a clever back-heel from Santiago Castro brought Bologna level, and a handball in added time awarded the hosts a penalty, which Riccardo Orsolini converted to secure the three points.
