Danilo on a chaotic corner and Federico Chiesa after a sprint from his own half gave Juventus victory in Empoli, despite Etrit Berisha saving the Dusan Vlahovic penalty.
The Bianconeri made several changes after the controversial 1-1 draw with Bologna, still missing Wojciech Szczesny and Mattia De Sciglio. Empoli had lost both matches without finding the net, with Elia Caprile and Daniel Maldini injured, so Berisha made his debut in goal.
Dusan Vlahovic tested Berisha early on with a snapshot and Danilo had the ball in the net on 11 minutes, but he had also fouled the goalkeeper.
Vlahovic’s header swung just wide from a Fabio Miretti assist, but Juve did score eventually from a chaotic corner that pinballed around in the box until Danilo fired in from eight yards.
McKennie had an effort charged down and Berisha took the sting out of a sudden Filip Kostic strike, but Juve were awarded a rather soft penalty when Federico Gatti went looking for contact with Yousef Maleh’s leg.
Vlahovic stepped up, but saw his spot-kick saved by Berisha on the goalkeeper’s Empoli debut.
Straight after the restart, Federico Chiesa ran onto an inspired Fabio Miretti pass, but the touch let him down and allowed Berisha to make the block.
There was a VAR silent check for another possible Juve penalty on 57 minutes, but it was not entirely clear whether it struck Jacopo Fazzini’s arm or if the ball was already out of play from the McKennie header, so no action was taken.
Chiesa nutmegged Sebastian Walukiewicz only to then sweep the finish wide of the far post as Berisha came flying out.
Ciccio Caputo prodded a Bartosz Bereszynski pull-back onto the side-netting, while Paul Pogba thought he had scored with a splendid volley, but Vlahovic was clearly offside when making the assist.
Just as Empoli were pouring forward, they were caught out on the counter. Arkadiusz Milik’s give and go sent Chiesa sprinting clear on goal from the centre-circle, he was caught by the on-rushing Berisha, but got back on his feet after the stumble to finish into an empty net.
Milik almost got a third in stoppages, his header smacking against the crossbar from Pogba’s cross.
Mattia Destro’s chest and volley lob landed on the roof of the net, while Moise Kean was unlucky to see his low drive thump the base of the upright.
Empoli 0-2 Juventus
Danilo 24 (J), Chiesa 82 (J)
Saved penalty: Vlahovic 39 (J)
Player statistic
| 15' |  |
Manuel Locatelli | ||
| 24' |  |
Danilo | ||
| 39' |  |
Dusan Vlahovic | ||
| Bartosz Bereszynski | |
43' |
| 48' | |
Dusan Vlahovic | ||
| 49' | |
Fabio Miretti | ||
| 82' | |
Federico Chiesa (Assist: Arkadiusz Milik) | ||
| Emmanuel Gyasi | |
86' | ||
| Mattia Destro | |
90+8' |
Match statistic
