FOOTBALL – LATE goals from Khephren Thuram and Teun Koopmeiners earned Juventus a 2-0 home win against Hellas Verona in Serie A last night as Thiago Motta’s side extended their winning run to five games.
Juventus climbed two points above fifth-placed Lazio who briefly moved into the top four by winning at AC Milan on Sunday night.
France midfielder Thuram opened the scoring just as fans at the Allianz Stadium in Turin were turning on the Juve players, loudly booed off at half-time by supporters outraged at the midweek exit from the Italian Cup at the hands of Empoli.
The match was played in a flat atmosphere as fans protested their team’s underwhelming season after bringing in Thiago Motta as coach and spending significant sums to renew the squad and mount a challenge for the Scudetto and a deep run in the Champions League.
Instead, Juve were dumped out of Europe’s top club competition in the play-offs by PSV Eindhoven and trail league-leaders Inter by six points.
Despite five Serie A wins on the bounce, demanding Juve supporters staged a protest outside the team hotel on Sunday night and launched foul-mouthed chants at Motta.
Last night, Juve would have been behind to a rocket of a shot from Toma Suslov at the break had Davide Faraoni not strayed offside in the build-up.
That ruling set the stage for Juve to win a match which they dominated from the first whistle and could have won more comprehensively had it not been for Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo.
Koopmeiners netted just his third goal of the season to give the match a more respectable scoreline.
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