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Juventus’s Serie A title hopes were dealt a blow as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by relegation-battling Lecce on Saturday, with the hosts coming from behind but failing to win after Jonathan David had a Panenka-style penalty saved.
Juventus remain fifth on 33 points, five off the leaders, Milan, who have played a game less. Lecce are 16th on 17 points, five points above the relegation zone.
The home side dominated the opening half, creating a host of chances but went in behind at the break after Lameck Banda pounced on a wayward pass to give Lecce the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Juventus equalised four minutes after the break, Yildiz’s shot taking a deflection and the ball falling to Weston McKennie who fired past Falcone. Lecce faced wave after wave of Juventus attacks and the visitors conceded a penalty for Mohamed Kaba’s handball in blocking David’s shot.
Yildiz handed the ball to David but the Canada forward sent a tame Panenka-style effort down the middle and the diving Falcone had time to raise his foot to make the save. “David is a penalty taker, he strikes them very well and he made the right choice,” said the Juventus manager, Luciano Spalletti.
“Penalties get missed. If someone else had missed, it would have been the same. Next time I’ll probably step in too, because I like making decisions, but these things happen during a match. It wasn’t a favour just to let him score, he has to score because he’s the penalty taker.”
Falcone denied David a late winner with a fine save, Yildiz hit the post in added time and the final whistle was met with a chorus of boos from the Juventus fans.
In Spain, Villarreal rose to third in La Liga with a 3-1 win at Elche. After early goals from Alberto Moleiro and Georges Mikautadze, Martim Neto pulled one back for the hosts after half an hour. Alfonso Pedraza’s 83rd-minute strike secured the points for Villarreal. Elche stay ninth.
Later on Saturday, Barcelona visit Espanyol for a highly charged Catalan derby. The hosts have banned Barcelona fans from wearing their team’s shirt and stepped up security at the RCDE Stadium, with tensions running high as the Barcelona goalkeeper Joan García returns to his former club. Espanyol have installed protective netting behind both goals “to ensure the safety of all attendees and help the event run smoothly”, with García, who made a summer move to their bitter rivals, set to face his old team for the first time since leaving.
“Access to the RCDE Stadium with any type of garment, scarf or identifying symbol of FC Barcelona is strictly prohibited,” Espanyol said in a statement on Tuesday. “Any person wearing shirts, scarves, caps, flags or any other distinctive items of the visiting team will not be allowed to enter the stadium.”
Kylian Mbappé will miss Real Madrid’s home game against Real Betis on Sunday with a knee injury but is pushing to be available for next week’s Spanish Super Cup semi-final against Atlético Madrid. Xabi Alonso, the Madrid coach, said: “We’ll definitely miss Kylian. We have to have a lot of faith in those who are going to play tomorrow. Now we’ll see. We have to wait and see how things develop, and we’ll do everything we can to get him back as soon as possible.”
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This story will be updated
