ROME: No Cristiano Ronaldo. No wins for Juventus. The Bianconeri remained winless in Serie A and slumped to their second consecutive defeat since Ronaldo went back to Manchester United after losing at Napoli 2-1 on Saturday.
Napoli center back Kalidou Koulibaly scored five minutes from time after Moise Kean inexplicably headed the ball toward his own goal following a Napoli corner, setting up a tap-in for Koulibaly.
Matteo Politano equalized for Napoli near the hour mark following Álvaro Morata’s opener for Juventus 10 minutes in at Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
Juventus remained with just one point from a 2-2 draw at Udinese in its season opener. With Massimiliano Allegri having returned as Juventus coach after Andrea Pirlo’s unsuccessful tenure last season ended a run of nine straight Italian league titles, Juventus also lost at home to promoted Empoli before the international break.
The loss to Empoli came a day after Ronaldo’s transfer while this defeat came on the day that Ronaldo scored twice on his return to United after 12 years in a 4-1 victory over Newcastle in the English Premier League.
Napoli, meanwhile, has won all three of its matches under new coach Luciano Spalletti and moved three points clear of Lazio, Inter Milan, Roma and AC Milan, which each play on Sunday.
The equalizer came when Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny didn’t do enough to control a long-range curled effort from Lorenzo Insigne and Politano slotted it in from near the ‘keeper’s left post.
Morata’s goal came following a defensive error from Kostas Manolas, who was attempting an ill-advised pass back to goalkeeper David Ospina. Morata took possession instead and beat Ospina from a sharp angle.
It was Morata’s first goal of the season after scoring 20 in 44 matches across all competitions last season for Juventus.
United States midfielder Weston McKennie played the opening 72 minutes for Juventus despite being banned from a pair of US World Cup qualifiers for violating the national team’s COVID-19 protocols.
McKennis also missed Juventus’ derby against Torino in April after violating COVID-19 protocols in Italy.
Allegri needed McKennie’s services after deciding not to use South American players Paulo Dybala, Juan Cuadrado, Rodrigo Bentancur, Danilo and Alex Sandro because they had just returned from international duty.
McKennie nearly scored with a long, low shot that went just wide shortly after Politano’s goal.
Venezia earned its first points in Serie A in nearly 20 years with a 2-1 win at Serie B champion Empoli.
Back in the top division for the first time since 2001-02, Venezia’s goals came from two newly acquired players: French forward Thomas Henry and Nigerian striker David Okereke.
No Ronaldo, no wins for Juventus after losing at Napoli 2-1
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No Ronaldo, no wins for Juventus after losing at Napoli 2-1
- The Bianconeri remained winless and slumped to their 2nd consecutive defeat since Ronaldo left to Manchester United
- Juventus remained with just one point from a 2-2 draw at Udinese
Premier League rings in New Year with goal drought as Man City lose ground in title race
- Second-placed City would have reduced Arsenal’s advantage to two points but instead were frustrated as their winning streak in all competitions was halted at eight
- Liverpool’s attack was also found wanting as they drew 0-0 at home to Leeds United while there were no goals at Brentford as they ground out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur
SUNDERLAND, England: The Premier League’s festive feast turned stale on Thursday as the New Year’s Day program served up three 0-0 draws, most significantly Manchester City’s stalemate at Sunderland which left them four points adrift of leaders Arsenal.
Second-placed City would have reduced Arsenal’s advantage to two points but instead were frustrated as their winning streak in all competitions was halted at eight.
Liverpool’s attack was also found wanting as they drew 0-0 at home to Leeds United while there were no goals at Brentford as they ground out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
The only goals of the day came at Selhurst Park where Fulham’s Tom Cairney scored a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw.
Sunderland have proved stubborn opposition on their return to the Premier League and have now drawn with City, Arsenal and third-placed Aston Villa at their Stadium of Light.
They are only the second promoted team to remain unbeaten in their first 10 home games in a Premier League campaign, after Ipswich Town in 1992-93, and were worth their point.
City did everything in their power to make the breakthrough but home goalkeeper Robin Roefs pulled off a series of saves while the closest the visitors came to scoring was Josko Gvardiol’s header which shaved the post in the second half.
“They are so physical. They’re so strong, so it’s not a surprise at that. We take the point,” City boss Pep Guardiola said. “Really pleased with the performances, especially in the second half. There’s still a long way (to go).”
One boost for City was the sight of Rodri back in action as a substitute for the injured Niko Gonzalez having recovered from a hamstring injury that had restricted him to a handful of minutes in the last three months.
Arsenal’s 4-1 thrashing of Villa on Tuesday put them on 45 points at the halfway stage of the season while Pep Guardiola’s City have 41 after just their second league draw of the season.
Next up for Arsenal is a trip to struggling Bournemouth on Saturday while City are at home a day later against Chelsea who parted ways with coach Enzo Maresca on Thursday.
Reigning champions Liverpool are 12 points behind Arsenal in fourth place as they produced a lacklustre display.
Their best chance fell to Hugo Ekitike but his miss rather summed up Liverpool’s day, somehow heading an inviting cross by Jeremie Frimpong away from goal when he seemed set to score.
It could have been worse for Arne Slot’s side too with Dominic Calvert-Lewin having an 81st-minute goal disallowed for offside after latching on to a pass by Noah Okafor.
“You would like to start off (2026) with a win,” Slot said. “But it was difficult. I don’t think we were able to play many times through their low block.
“Sometimes we didn’t have enough bodies in front of the goal and in other moments where we did create or we were close to a goal, we were a bit unfortunate.”
For Leeds it was another important point in their bid to stay clear of the relegation zone. They are in 16th place with 21 points, seven ahead of third-from-bottom West Ham United.
“It doesn’t come along that often that you get a clean sheet and a point at Anfield,” Leeds boss Daniel Farke said.
“We had to defend and suffer but we are newly promoted and came to the defending champions.”
Spurs manager Thomas Frank went back to his old club Brentford but it was a forgettable affair as Tottenham’s 137-game run in the Premier League without a goalless draw ended.
Their last one was also against Brentford in May 2022.
The draw left Tottenham in 12th place with 26 points while Brentford, who had the better chances, are ninth with 27.
Palace are now winless in six matches in all competitions as they were denied victory by a superb curling shot by Cairney.
Jean-Philippe Mateta had headed Palace into the lead but the hosts faded and Fulham would have snatched all three points had Dean Henderson not made a great save to deny Timothy Castagne and had Joachim Andersen not blazed a shot over.
“When the legs and the mind are not that fresh it’s a little bit difficult. It was a good point today,” Palace manager Oliver Glasner said. Palace are 10th with Fulham 11th, both on 27 points.
