After letting go of their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo in the offseason, Juventus struggled to string together a cohesive unit to win their first game in Serie A after four matches. However, on Wednesday, Moise Kean, Federico Chiesa each scored in a 3-2 win at Spezia while Matthijs De Ligt scored the winner in the 72nd minute.

Critics had been demanding that Juventus use its younger players more during a horrendous start to the league. De Ligt completed comeback after Juventus fell behind four minutes after the break.

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Playing in place of Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini, the 22-year-old De Ligt coolly redirected in a loose ball that was being knocked around following a corner. This is Bianconeri’s first Italian league win of the season on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old Chiesa had equalized six minutes earlier with a typical goal for the Italy winger: he darted straight to the goal by dribbling through the legs of a defender then just barely got his shot off as he was sliding toward the ball.

The 21-year-old Kean — like coach Massimiliano Allegri in his second stint at Juventus — had given the visitors an early lead with a long shot after Adrien Rabiot knocked down a ball over the top from Leonardo Bonucci.

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Spezia had struck back with goals on both sides of halftime, the first coming with a solo effort from Emmanuel Gyasi, who dribbled by Danilo on the left flank and looped a long shot into the far corner.

Gyasi celebrated like Cristiano Ronaldo, his idol and the recently departed Juventus player, by leaping into the air and pumping his arms down toward his body.

Janis Antiste, a 19-year-old French forward, put Spezia ahead by beating De Ligt on a counterattack with the help of his shot being deflected by Bonucci.

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Spezia nearly made it 3-1 but another effort minutes later was cleared off the line by Manuel Locatelli.

With the win, Juventus moved up to 12th place, eight points behind leader Inter Milan.

With inputs from the Associated Press