Serie A – Juventus held to frustrating goalless stalemate at Sampdoria as away side drop first points

Juventus endured a frustrating night at Luigi Ferraris Stadium on Monday night as Sampdoria held them to a goalless draw.

Sampdoria failed to make the most of an incredibly sloppy opening 45 minutes from Juventus, where the visitors struggled to get forward and supply starved frontman Dusan Vlahovic with any sort of service.

The best chance of the half fell to Sampdoria’s Mehdi Leris when he was played in by Abdelhamid Sabiri, but his close-range effort was denied by the legs of Mattia Perin before the ricochet crashed off the bar.

Juventus thought they had broken the deadlock in the second half through Adrien Rabiot, but it was quickly ruled out by VAR. Vlahovic, who was involved in the build-up, had strayed a yard offside before he received the ball to square for the oncoming Rabiot, who finished smartly beyond Emil Audero.

Vlahovic and Juventus looked like they were going to get more joy towards the latter stages of the second half, but the hosts kept them at bay to hold on for a deserved point.

TALKING POINT – JUVE STARVED OF CREATIVITY WITHOUT CHIESA, DI MARIA

That would have been one of Dusan Vlahovic’s least favourite games of football in his career. He was starved of any service throughout, especially in the first half when he only touched the ball three times (and one of those was kicking off the game).

Two players Juventus rely on heavily for creativity are sidelined, and without them, they really struggled. Federico Chiesa is out with an ACL injury, but after Angel Di Maria’s impressive debut last week against Sassuolo, it gave Juventus hope that he could fill the void. However, the former PSG man picked up a minor knock and missed out on Monday night, which really hurt Juventus going forward.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH – EMIL AUDERO (SAMPDORIA)

The hosts thoroughly deserved at least a point tonight, and were probably unlucky not to come away with all three. Two players that stood out for Sampdoria were midfielder Abdelhamid Sabiri and goalkeeper, and player of the match, Emil Audero.

It was split between the two all game. If the home side were going to score it looked as though it was going to come through Sabiri in some way. He was encouraging on the ball, and set-up a great chance for Mehdi Leris in the first half with an excellent through ball. Audero though snatched the title of player of the match away from his colleague when he made a crucial save in the 93rd minute to deny Filip Kostic a late goal, and Juventus the win.

MATCH RATINGS

SAMPDORIA: Audero 8, Bereszynski 7, Ferrari 7, Colley 6, Augello 6, Vieira 7, Leris 7, Rincon 6, Sabiri 8, Djuricic 5, Caputo 6

Subs: Depaoli 5, Murru 5, Verre 5, Villar, 5 Quagliarella 5

JUVENTUS: Perin 6, Danilo 6, Rugani 6, Bremer 5, Alex Sandro 6, McKennie 4, Locatelli 5, Rabiot 6, Cuadrado 6, Vlahovic 4, Kostic 4

Subs: De Sciglio 6, Miretti 6, Rovella N/A, Kean 6

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

7′ – HUGE CHANCE SAMPDORIA… IT’S OFF THE BAR! It should be 1-0! Sabiri picks up the ball on the left and plays a wonderful through ball for Leris to meet in the box, but his close-range effort is turned onto the bar by Perin. That’s a big, big chance gone begging for the hosts!

17′ – DANGEROUS SAMPDORIA CORNER. Sabiri whips the ball in towards the near-post with decent pace behind it, and had Vlahovic panicking. The striker slices the ball and it ricochets off the post before going behind for another corner.

22′ – KOSTIC EFFORT TAKES A BIG DEFLECTION… AND SAVED! He strikes the ball from the edge of the box and it takes a defletion off of a Sampdoria defender on the way through, but Audero manages to tip it over the bar.

34′ – JUVENTUS GET AWAY WITH ANOTHER ONE… Caputo drives into the box and skips past a couple of Juventus defenders who struggle to put in a challenge, but Bremer finally gets enough on the ball to put the striker off as Perin collects the loose ball.

67′ – GOAL DISALLOWED! Rabiot has the ball in the net, but it looks like Vlahovic went early before delivering the cross, and was a yard or two offside. It remains goalless!

90’+3 – BIG SAVE AUDERO! He denies Kostic, who had a great chance at the back post to win it! His volley was straight down the throat of Audero, but he did brilliantly to get across to it at the back post.

KEY STAT

• Juventus failed to win in both first two matches of a Serie A campaign for the third season in a row, after the Bianconeri have won the first two games of the season in all the previous four campaigns. (Opta).