November 22, (THEWILL) — Juventus squandered the opportunity to narrow the distance on Serie A’s front-runners following a 1-1 stalemate against Fiorentina. The visitors took the lead through Filip Kostic before the interval, only for Rolando Mandragora to level shortly after the restart in a contest that saw Luciano Spalletti’s men fail to capitalise on their second-half dominance.
The opening period belonged largely to Fiorentina, who created two clear opportunities before falling behind. Dusan Vlahovic saw a spot-kick overturned following VAR intervention, whilst Moise Kean rattled the woodwork with a fierce strike. Mandragora then fired a set-piece marginally wide of the right upright before Kostic broke the deadlock in the fifth additional minute of the first half, drilling home from approximately 30 yards into the bottom-left corner.
The home side required just three minutes of the second period to draw level. Mandragora thundered the ball into the top-right corner, leaving Michele Di Gregorio helpless between the posts for the visitors.
Fiorentina goalkeeper David De Gea, formerly of Manchester United, proved instrumental in preserving the draw. The Spanish shot-stopper first denied Kenan Yildiz with a comfortable save before producing a fine tip-over to keep out Weston McKennie’s close-range header.
The result means the Bianconeri failed to gain ground on the early pace-setters in Italy’s top flight, with both sides sharing the points at full time.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.