Juventus wastes chance to move back into the Champions League places

By Canadian Press on April 23, 2025.

Juventus wasted a chance to move back into the Champions League places following a 1-0 loss at Parma in a rescheduled Serie A match on Wednesday.

Parma forward Mateo Pellegrino scored with a header in first-half stoppage time.

Juventus remained fifth, one point behind Bologna, with five rounds remaining.

Making matters worse for Juventus was that center forward Dusan Vlahovic came off at halftime with an apparent thigh issue.

Juventus was also in fifth place when it fired Thiago Motta last month and hired Igor Tudor as its new coach for the remainder of the season.

Cristian Chivu took over as Parma coach in February and the team is on a six-game unbeaten run that also includes a 2-2 draw with Serie A leader Inter Milan this month.

Parma-Juventus was one of four matches postponed from Monday due to the death of Pope Francis. Each game was preceded by a moment of silence to mourn the pope, who died Monday at 88.

Later, Inter was facing AC Milan in the second leg of a derby in the Italian Cup semifinals. The first leg ended 1-1. Bologna takes a 3-0 lead over Empoli into the return match of the other semifinal on Thursday.

Lazio back in 6th

Lazio leapfrogged city rival Roma and moved back into sixth place — level on points with Juventus — with a 2-0 win at 10-man Genoa.

Valentin Castellanos and Boulaye Dia scored for Lazio after Genoa defender Sebastian Otoa was shown a direct red card in his Serie A debut for pushing down Mattia Zaccagni.

The match was suspended briefly during the first half when flares lit by Genoa’s hard-core “ultra” fans covered the field in smoke.

Lazio also ended with 10 men when Reda Belahyane made a hard tackle late in the second half.

Also, eighth-place Fiorentina came back from a goal down for a 2-1 win at Cagliari with goals from Robin Gosens and Lucas Beltran; and Torino beat Udinese 2-0 with a first-half goal from Scotland forward Ché Adams and a late strike from Ali Dembele.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press

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