Sassuolo 1 : 1 Juventus - Juve drop points at Sassuolo

Posted Sunday, October 19, 2014 by PA

Juventus dropped their first points of the season on Saturday night when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Sassuolo in a battle of bottom against top in Serie A.

Simone Zaza, on loan at Sassuolo from Juve, scored against his parent club to give the Emilia-Romagna side the lead, but Paul Pogba levelled for the Bianconeri soon after.

Juve had chances to win it but Sassuolo did not just defend and could have snatched all three points themselves at the Stadio Giglio with a point lifting them off the foot of the table ahead of Sunday's matches.

Fernando Llorente has yet to open his account for Juventus this season and he went close to doing so after just 11 minutes, but Andrea Consigli denied him.

A minute later, the ball was in the back of Consigli's goal, but Leonardo Bonucci was in an offside position when he turned the ball in after the Sassuolo coach had denied Llorente again.

From thinking they were in front to actually falling behind, less than 60 seconds passed with Bonucci involved first in blocking Zaza's shot, but he could not help Gianluigi Buffon as he was beaten by Zaza's second shot on goal.

Sassuolo's lead lasted only six minutes before Carlos Tevez pulled the ball back for Pogba to guide in from the edge of the penalty area.

Consigli then denied Stephan Lichtsteiner, Pogba and Tevez as Juve searched for a second goal before the break.

Domenico Berardi nearly found a second goal for Sassuolo just after the break, but his free-kick just missed the left-hand post.

Juve substitute Kingsley Coman spooned a shot over the crossbar with Juve's best chance of the second half, while a bad first touch from Zaza deprived him of the chance of a one-on-one with Buffon in the dying minutes.