Juventus got their first Serie A home win of the season, beating Sampdoria 3-2 in another unconvincing performance, but Paulo Dybala’s injury cast a shadow over proceedings.
The Bianconeri got their first Serie A win midweek, but a 3-2 comeback at Spezia hardly boosted confidence. Adrien Rabiot joined Arthur and Kaio Jorge on the treatment table, while Mattia Perin came in for rested Wojciech Szczesny. Samp were fresh from a 4-0 defeat to Napoli, still missing Manolo Gabbiadini, Valerio Verre, Ronaldo Vieira and Juve-owned Mohamed Ihattaren.
Manuel Locatelli’s strike was charged down, but he laid off the rebound for Paulo Dybala to smash into the near bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Moments later, Federico Chiesa drilled inches wide and Alvaro Morata fired straight at on-rushing Emil Audero.
However, just as the Bianconeri were getting into gear, Dybala pulled up clutching his leg and limped off in tears.
His replacement Dejan Kulusevski should’ve done better when nodding a Juan Cuadrado cross wide, but the Dybala exit visibly sapped the enthusiasm out of Juve, who had started so well.
Serie A Wk 6 Liveblog: Super Sunday with Juve-Samp and Rome Derby
However, just before half-time, Chiesa’s strike was charged down by a Nicola Murru hand and Leonardo Bonucci converted the penalty low and hard into the near bottom corner. It was a borderline decision, because Murru was trying to turn away, but his trailing hand was raised.
The lead was only doubled for circa 90 seconds before Samp got back into it. Perin parried a Fabio Quagliarella snapshot and on the resulting corner Candreva whipped a wonderful cross into the six-yard box for the Maya Yoshida glancing header. Yet again, there is no Serie A clean sheet for Juventus since March, a run of 20 consecutive games.
The Bianconeri did restore the two-goal cushion when Chiesa ran at defenders, Omar Colley’s clearance was straight at Kulusevski, who pulled back from the by-line for Manuel Locatelli to score from six yards. It was the Italy international’s first goal in the Juve jersey.
Matthijs de Ligt needed a perfectly-timed tackle on Quagliarella, while Audero beat away a Rodrigo Bentancur strike and Morata blasted wide from an Aaron Ramsey assist.
However, it wasn’t over and Samp set up a tense finale after a well-worked move down the left with Adrien Silva found Candreva to blast in the angled drive from 12 yards.
Juventus 3-2 Sampdoria
Dybala 10 (J), Bonucci pen 43 (J), Yoshida 44 (S), Locatelli 57 (J), Candreva 83 (S)