Turin stalemate keeps Juve and Fiorentina off top

Both Juventus and Fiorentina missed the chance to go top of Serie A, even if only for a couple of hours, after drawing 1-1 in rainy Turin on Saturday.

Juan Vargas opened the scoring for the visitors but Brazilian Amauri scored his first goal of the season to earn the Old Lady of Turin a share of the spoils.

But the draw leaves both teams a point behind Inter Milan, who travel to Genoa later on Saturday, and Sampdoria at the top of the scudetto standings.

Worryingly for Juventus, this was their fourth Serie A game and fifth in all competitions in a row without a victory, in fact they have won only one of their last seven matches.

The visitors will be the more satisfied of the two teams as this result – following on from their recent 2-0 victory against Liverpool in the Champions League – demonstrates they are true title challengers this season.

Fiorentina were off to a flying start as playmaker Stevan Jovetic escaped the attentions of Fabio Cannavaro and Zdenek Grygera down the left and slipped in Vargas, who held off Christian Poulsen and beat Gianluigi Buffon at his near post.

But that only angered the hosts who soon came hurtling back with Vincenzo Iaquinta guilty of some profligate finishing, which eventually led to an equaliser on 19 minutes.

His first chance saw him one-on-one with La Viola goalkeeper Sebastien Frey but from eight yards he shot straight at the Frenchman.

Next he poked the ball wide from barely six yards out with the goal gaping but hid third fluffed effort – his worst yet – inadvertently led to Amauri scoring.

Played in behind Fiorentina’s porous defence Iaquinta completely hooked his shot on the turn well off target, but the ball ran across goal where the unmarked Amauri had the simple task of tapping into an empty net.

Vargas had the ball in the net again just after the half hour mark direct from a free-kick but it was strangely disallowed as Dario Dainelli was penalised for wrestling with Giorgio Chiellini off the ball in what TV replays showed was a clear case of six of one and half a dozen of the other.

The restart began with a bang as Juve’s Mohamed Sissoko forced Frey to save with his foot before the Mali international went wide with a header.

Up the other end Vargas teed up Jovetic on the break but the Montenegro attacking midfielder shot wide.

Juve carried marginally the greater threat and Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo should have done better against his former club when he had a free header at the back post but he got underneath it and lifted it well over the bar.