MILAN (AP) — AC Milan and Juventus extended their losing streaks with a 0-0 draw in Serie A on Saturday.
The result in Turin may leave the Bianconeri nervous at the end of the week. Juventus remained third, albeit 11 points ahead of seventh-placed Atalanta, who have two games in hand.
Milan, injured, were just ahead of Juventus.
The top five in Serie A qualify for next season’s Champions League. Lazio finished sixth and three points behind Roma, who face Napoli on Sunday, with a 1-0 win over relegation-threatened Hellas Verona.
Juventus, coming off draws against Turin and Cagliari, have won just two of their last thirteen Serie A games.
Milan have lost 3 of their last competitions in all competitions and endured the humiliation of losing to Inter Milan on Monday and confirming the Nerazzurri as Serie A champions.
Theo Hernandez and Davide Calabria were sent off in that match and therefore suspended along with fellow Milan defender Fikayo Tomori. Goalkeeper Mike Maignan withdrew the warm-up, adding to the Rossoneri’s injury woes.
Behind the decimated defence, substitute Marco Sportiello was arguably the busiest of the goalkeepers and did well to locate Dušan Vlahović’s free-kick around his left post just before the break.
Sportiello did even more after the restart with a double save to first stop a Filip Kostić attempt and prevent Danilo from grabbing the rebound.
Sportiello also kept out Weston McKennie’s header with minutes remaining and Milan defender Malick Thiaw cleared Adrien Rabiot’s run off the line.
THE PURPOSE OF THE EX
Lazio and former Verona midfielder Mattia Zaccagni scored against his former club, as he did in their first clash this season.
Zaccagni and finished off the move in the 72nd minute. He picked up the ball on the halfway line, ran and rolled to Luis Alberto, who returned the ball to him so he could shoot close to the post.
Lazio winger Pedro, guilty of a flagrant mistake, hit the post with a delayed free-kick.
Verona remained three points above the relegation zone.
Downtime Drama
Lecce took a small step towards defence after drawing 1-1 at home to Monza with both goals coming in stoppage time.
Nikola Krstović thought he had secured Lecce a third straight win when he scored in the second minute of stoppage time. But Matteo Pessina equalized on the spot after Lecce defender Lorenzo Venuti dealt with the ball.
Lecce moved 8 points above the relegation zone.
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