Pierre Kalulu of Juventus, Scott McTominay of Napoli (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
Juventus played their third consecutive 0-0 draw in Serie A, as Napoli forced the only real saves with Matteo Politano and Scott McTominay in Turin.
The Bianconeri had drawn their last two Serie A games, but beat PSV Eindhoven 3-1 midweek in the Champions League. Francisco Conceicao and Arek Milik were still injured, with Federico Gatti nursing an ankle issue, so Pierre Kalulu moved into central defense. The Partenopei had won three in a row under Antonio Conte and gave Scott McTominay his first start, moving to 4-3-3.
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The former Manchester United midfielder had the first real chance after 29 minutes, intercepting a weak Dusan Vlahovic pass and stinging Michele Di Gregorio’s gloves from outside the box.
Napoli suffered a blow when goalkeeper Alex Meret limped off with a muscular problem, replaced by Elia Caprile.
Di Gregorio saw Matteo Politano’s free kick at the last second when it went over Romelu Lukaku’s head, forcing a tricky fingertip save in first half stoppages.
There was a big surprise for the restart, as Tim Weah replaced Vlahovic as center-forward in a new role for the American. It was a tactical choice, because the Serbian had only six hits in the entire first half.
Kenan Yildiz’s right-foot curler was straight at Caprile, while Politano’s curler flashed just over the bar, but there was controversy when Matias Olivera seemed to knock the ball back to Caprile and the referee judged it to not be an intentional Napoli back-pass.
Andrea Cambiaso surged forward only for Teun Koopmeiners to blast over the bar. Not to be out-done by Thiago Motta, Antonio Conte also made a surprising change by revamping the entire front three.
Cambiaso scuffed a finish wide from the edge of the area, while Giovanni Simeone wasted two promising counter-attacks.
Juventus 0-0 Napoli
