(Reuters) – Juventus needed a second-half goal by striker Moise Kean to seal a 1-0 home win over Hellas Verona on Saturday and stay in the hunt for a top-six finish and a place in Europe.
Victory left Massimiliano Allegri’s side in seventh place with 44 points, three behind sixth-placed AS Roma, who will be in action on Sunday.
“We knew the difficulties of this game, as Verona are physically strong and have quality, both teams had chances to score,” Allegri said to Sky Sport Italia.
“We started the second half well and could’ve doubled our lead, we did not, but still brought home the result.”
Ondrej Duda had Verona’s first chance early in the match, but his shot went straight at Juve keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
Verona went agonisingly close to a goal after 15 minutes when Kevin Lasagna ran to the byline and floated in a cross for Fabio Depaoli, whose volley went narrowly wide.
Danilo’s deflected free kick hit the crossbar for Juve in the 36th minute, but that was as close it got for the hosts before halftime.
Kean put Juve ahead 10 minutes into the second half, controlling a through ball from Manuel Locatelli inside the box and slamming it into the bottom corner.
Verona’s Filippo Terracciano tested Szczesny with a deflected shot from outside the box, but the Poland keeper managed to keep it out.
Allegri left the field before the final whistle after Gleison Bremer inexplicably blasted over from close-range with the goal gaping three minutes before fulltime.
“We didn’t play very well and I think in the last five minutes we had to go and score a second goal, keep pushing them and maintain the pressure,” Allegri said.
“It doesn’t seem like much five minutes, but all Verona needed was a long ball into the box and anything could happen. We could’ve been here licking our wounds if they had equalised.”
The visitors tried to create pressure but struggled to break through Juve’s tight defence and eventually ran out of steam.
Verona are in 18th place and five points adrift of the safety zone.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)
