Juventus Held In Fiorentina, Mertens Brace Lifts Napoli News

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Juventus Held In Fiorentina, Mertens Brace Lifts Napoli

By Daily Sports on September 15, 2019

Coach Maurizio Sarri said Juventus "didn't deserve to win" after his first game on the bench ended in a painful goalless draw at Fiorentina on Saturday with three players going off injured to complicate preparations for next week's Champions League opener.

But Serie A rivals Napoli won at home thanks to a Dries Mertens double in a 2-0 victory over crisis club Sampdoria, before hosting Liverpool on Tuesday.

Sarri missed his team's first two wins over Parma and Napoli with pneumonia, but four days before Juventus travel to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League his side failed to impress in Tuscany.

"We wouldn't have deserved to win this game," said Sarri of a game where Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates lacked inspiration up front and struggled physically.

The reigning eight-time Serie A champions are already missing injured captain Giorgio Chiellini, Mattia De Sciglio and Marko Pjaca.

And Brazilian Douglas Costa pulled up with a hamstring problem minutes into the game in Florence, as Miralem Pjanic hit with a muscular issue just before the break with Danilo suffering cramps in the heat.

They nevertheless held on despite pressure with former French international Franck Ribery impressive on his first start for the hosts.

"It was a very complicated situation as we used all our substitutions for injuries, and had no fresh players to introduce at key moments," said Sarri.

"It was not a high-level game from a technical point of view, a team with less character would lose such a game."

Midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur added: "We got an important point, today we saw a bad Juventus.

Napoli defeated Sampdodria 2-0 courtesy of a brace from Mertens. (SuperSport)

•Photo shows Juventus players

Source Daily Sports

Posted September 15, 2019