Serie A: Juventus beaten by Sassuolo in Allegri’s 200th match in-charge

Juventus could not gift a victory to manager Massimilano Allegri in his 200th match in charge of the club. The milestone game ended in defeat as Sassuolo scored late to snatch a 2-1 victory in Turin in Serie A on Wednesday.

Maxime Lopez struck in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time to hand Sassuolo its first-ever victory at Juventus. American Weston McKennie had canceled out Davide Frattesi’s first-half opener.

Juventus are 13 points behind Serie A leader AC Milan after 10 matches. Third-place Inter Milan can close the gap to its city rival to seven points with a win at Empoli later.

Sassuolo moved up to the ninth place, just a point behind Juventus.

After a rocky start to Allegri’s second spell in charge, Juventus had appeared to be back on track.

However, Domenico Berardi almost gave the Sassuolo the lead after McKennie had lost the ball, but his curled effort was finger-tipped around the post by Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin.

Paulo Dybala went even closer to the opener in the 37th minute, but his effort came off the right post. Sassuolo took the lead a minute from halftime when Frattesi fired Grégoire Defrel’s through ball into the bottom left corner.

Juventus appeared more determined after the break and Sassuolo defender Kaan Ayhan had to clear Juan Cuadrado’s shot off the line with his knee with goalkeeper Andrea Consigli beaten. Moments later, Consigli parried Dybala’s shot and the ball came to Federico Chiesa, who headed over.

The Bianconeri did get the equalizer when McKennie headed a Dybala free-kick into the top right corner.

Juventus pushed hard for the winner and all the Bianconeri players were at the other end, leaving them wide open at the back when Lopez sprinted onto a long ball and managed to evade McKennie’s last-ditch tackle and win the match with a chipped effort over Perin.

(With AP inputs)