Hellas Verona 2-1 Juventus: Player ratings as Simeone double sinks Old Lady
Juventus recorded a second consecutive Serie A defeat in the space of three days as Hellas Verona held on to an early lead to secure a 2-1 win on Saturday evening.
Giovanni Simeone sent Juve spinning with a pair of goals inside the opening quarter of an hour. In the 11th minute a swarm of Verona players left Arthur so disorientated he turned towards his own goal and slid a pass into the feet of the hosts' Antonin Barak in Juve's area. Wojciech Szczesny rushed out to block well but the rebound fell kindly for Cholito to tap his team ahead.
Barely three minutes had elapsed before Simeone was back on the scoresheet, arcing a stunning effort over the helpless Szczesny to double Verona's lead and take his personal tally to six goals in a week - as many as Juve could collectively muster across their previous six matches across all competitions.
The team led by Juve's former player and assistant coach, Igor Tudor, bullied his past employers all over the pitch, which, admittedly, wasn't difficult with the BIanconeri ambling around in state of shock for much of the first half.
Paulo Dybala, the one slither of optimism in an otherwise demoralising 45 minutes, clipped the top of the crossbar in the closing stages of the half following some rare urgency (on or off the ball) in midfield.
Juve enjoyed a larger share of possession after the interval - aided by the double-change in midfield Massimiliano Allegri deployed within 15 minutes of the restart - but from painfully sterile positions.
Danilo, however, injected some much-needed thrust into proceedings with a pass punched into the feet of one of those replacements - Weston McKennie had time to get the ball out of his feet and crash his shot in off the bar, providing a tickle of excitement to the final ten minutes of a contest that had been meandering to its conclusion.
JUVENTUS PLAYER RATINGS
1. Goalkeeper & defenders
Wojciech Szczesny (GK) - 5/10 - Unable to realistically prevent the finishes delivered by a player in ebullient form.
Danilo (CB) - 6/10 - Didn't exactly cover himself in glory in Juve's own half, but provided a rare glimmer of cutting edge in the other half.
Leonardo Bonucci (CB) - 4/10 - Passively back-pedalled to get the best view of Simeone's sumptuous second.
Giorgio Chiellini (CB) - 4/10 - Taking his eye off the ball and his opponents all too often in a sloppy display.
2. Midfielders & wing-backs
Juan Cuadrado (RWB) - 4/10 - Summarised Juve's flimsy approach when he simply stopped playing at one point, expectantly awaiting a free kick for some light pressure at his back that never came.
Rodrigo Bentancur (CM) - 4/10 - Skirting around the fringes of the contest he was unsurprisingly hooked before the hour mark.
Arthur (CM) - 3/10 - On his first start under Allegri, Arthur got off to the worst possible start, failing to use the one skill so often reputedly to be in his arsenal: ball retention.
Adrien Rabiot (CM) - N/A - Struggled desperately to exert any kind of influence on proceedings.
Alex Sandro (LWB) - 4/10 - Flashed a shot into the side-netting following a rare foray forward but failed to positively impact proceedings for Juve at either end.
3. Forwards
Paulo Dybala (ST) - 7/10 - On his 250th Serie A appearance, Juve's jewel sparkled even brighter against the backdrop of the mediocrity around him.
Alvaro Morata (ST) - 4/10 - Squandered the chance open the scoring from inside the six yard box early one with a surprisingly casual back heel that was tamely blocked.
4. Substitutes
Weston McKennie (CM) - 7/10 - Provided another, rare, set of black and white stripes in Verona's box that raised concerns for the hosts.
Manuel Locatelli (CM) - 5/10
Federico Bernardeschi (LM) - N/A
Dejan Kulusevski (RM) - N/A
Luca Pellegrini (LB) - N/A