(Football news) Juventus were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw at Sampdoria on Monday with the hosts having come closest to scoring when Mehdi Leris hit the post early on in the match. Frenchman Leris had Sampdoria's only attempt on goal in the seventh minute after a cross cut through Juve's defence and he was there in the middle of the box, but the midfielder hit the woodwork. Juan Cuadrado could have found an unmarked Dusan Vlahovic in the 15th minute after he brilliantly stole the ball from defender Tommaso Augello but decided to shoot and his effort was easily saved.
The visitors thought they had finally scored the first goal of the match when Adrien Rabiot turned a pass from Vlahovic into the net in the 65th minute only to have the goal disallowed by VAR for an offside. Juve's new signing Filip Kostic tried to smash a winner in the third minute of added time but goalkeeper was equal to it as Emil Audero made a superb save to deny the Old Lady with the three points after they comfortably beat Sassuolo 3-0 in their opening fixture
"We have not conceded goals in two games. In the first half Sampdoria's game was good while we did good things in the second half," manager Massimiliano Allegri said after the match. "Unfortunately there is something in football that should not be done and that is running backwards. This 0-0 tastes like victory. We drew with a really strong team.”
Chris Smalling headed Roma to a 1-0 victory over newly promoted side Cremonese on Monday but Jose Mourinho's side suffered a major blow when his main talisman Nicolo Zaniolo suffered an injury after already losing Georginio Wijnaldum to a fractured shin. Former Manchester United player Smalling met Lorenzo Pellegrini's corner in the 65th minute with a perfect header to send a wave of relief around a packed Stadio Olimpico.
Roma now have a maximum of six points from their first two games after winning the Uefa Conference League last season and an impressive transfer window which brought in the likes of Paulo Dybala. However that positive feeling has been drained after Zaniolo had to be taken off just before half-time with what appeared to be a serious shoulder injury. The visitors came close twice when Cyriel Desser's bicycle kick went wide and he was again unlucky not to put the away side ahead just after the break when his superb half-volley smashed against the crossbar. Charles Pickel almost snatched a point for Cremonese in stoppage time when his shot just missed the target. With this result Roma gained the three points and joined Inter Milan and Napoli at the top of the table.
"The three points are the most important I think. We can play better, we can finish the game earlier, but it's two games in and we wanted six points. We can only play better," said Smalling.
The 32-year-old dedicated his win to Wijnaldum, who signed from Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month."We're so disappointed for Gini … even in the warm up for that session he was feeling good, settled. He felt like he was a real part of this team in the couple of weeks that he's been here," added Smalling. "We're gutted for him and we hope he's back as soon as possible because he's such a quality addition for us."
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