Palermo 0 - 1 Juventus: Edoardo Goldaniga own goal gives Juventus narrow victory

Posted Sunday, September 25, 2016 by PA

Juventus needed an unfortunate Edoardo Goldaniga own goal to squeeze past Palermo 1-0 and preserve their Serie A lead.

The reigning champions replaced Napoli as the early season leaders with a 4-0 midweek thrashing of Cagliari but found Palermo goalkeeper Josip Posavec a largely immovable object at La Favorita.

Centre-back Goldaniga tried to do the under-siege stopper a favour in the 49th minute, yet Dani Alves' attempt ending up in the back of the net as a result of his intervention.

Massimiliano Allegri's men reach the 15-point mark after six games while Palermo are down in 16th.

Juve would go on to dominate the match but could not make the breakthrough before the break, with Gonzalo Higuain shooting just over and Posavec denying Mario Lemina in the first half.

Palermo gifted the visitors a goal four minutes after the restart. A swift team move put Alves into a position to shoot, with Goldaniga inadvertently backheeling the ball beyond Posavec.

Juve tried to turn the screw and Posavec had to pull off an amazing save to keep Mario Mandzukic's volley out in the 66th minute.

The Croatian goalkeeper then closed down his countryman following a fine assist from Sami Khedira, and the Bianconeri soon had a Mandzukic goal ruled out for offside following an Alves free-kick.

Try as they might the Scudetto holders could not force home a goal of their own to kill off the tie, but come full-time they were assured of top spot for another week at least.