Juventus suffered another setback as they lost 1-0 at home to Atalanta, with a fifth defeat in 14 Serie A games leaving them in eighth place. The hosts struggled to create any openings of note in the first half, with their defending not up to the required standard either as they left Duvan Zapata free to fire home in the 28th minute.
Juve failed to offer much of a response in pursuit of an equaliser, with Paulo Dybala’s late free-kick that clipped the crossbar as close as they came to a leveller.
Atalanta held on in relative comfort and stretched their unbeaten run to eight games in all competitions to stay fourth on 28 points, four points behind the leaders, Napoli, and seven points ahead of Juve, who are 11 points off the pace. The victory was Atalanta’s first at Juventus since 1989.
“Atalanta did little in front of goal. The only shot was made by Zapata on our mistake,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri told DAZN. “When you don’t score things get very nervous. The only thing that we have to do is work, as we have always done, and try to win a game.”
Earlier, Empoli scored two late goals to earn a dramatic derby win over Fiorentina. The visitors went ahead through Dusan Vlahovic before Filippo Bandinelli and Andrea Pinamonti struck in the 87th and 89th minutes. Sampdoria boosted their survival hopes with a 3-1 comeback win at home to Verona.
Erling Haaland scored on his comeback with a second-half volley as Borussia Dortmund came from a goal down to beat Wolfsburg 3-1 and stay a point behind the Bundesliga leaders, Bayern Munich. The Norwegian striker scored in the 81st minute after coming on as a second-half substitute following his recovery from a hip flexor muscle injury that had sidelined him since mid-October.
With their sixth win in the last seven league matches, Dortmund moved up to 30 points, one behind Bayern, who edged past Arminia Bielefeld 1-0. The Bundesliga’s top two teams face each other next Saturday, with Dortmund at home.
“A lot has happened in the past few days. But we played a good game and the result stands above everything else,” Dortmund’s Julian Brandt said. Dortmund had crashed out of the Champions League on Wednesday with a 3-1 loss to Sporting Lisbon. “We are extremely happy. Now we have a good full week to prepare for Bayern and we will go into that game with a lot of confidence.”
The Wolves took a second-minute lead through Wout Weghorst who headed in at the near post to complete a textbook break that had left the Dortmund backline exposed.
The Ruhr valley club levelled with an Emre Can penalty in the 35th after Marco Reus was brought down in the box by Wolfsburg’s Maxence Lacroix. Donyell Malen put them in front by rifling in from a Reus pass to score for the third consecutive game in all competitions.
There was more good news for the visitors, with Haaland making a second-half substitute appearance and looking as sharp as ever ahead of the big game against the Bavarians next week. He needed only eight minutes on the pitch to bag his 10th league goal in seven appearances, volleying in from close range to become the youngest ever player to reach 50 Bundesliga goals at 21 years and 128 days.
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Leroy Sane’s powerful drive in the 71st minute gave a misfiring Bayern side their home win against Arminia Bielefeld. Following a turbulent few days after last week’s Bundesliga loss to Augsburg and a string of Covid-19 cases, Bayern were frustrated in a dominant first half by Arminia’s goalkeeper, Stefan Ortega.
After the break the Bavarians picked up where they left off and had two early golden chances through Sané and Thomas Müller. Sané had another good opportunity in the 57th with a volley that sailed just wide but he did not miss in the 71st, rifling in from outside the box from a Müller pass.
The substitute Serge Gnabry rattled the bar minutes later but it was Sané’s goal that meant Bayern set a league record with 102 Bundesliga goals in a calendar year, beating Cologne’s mark from 1977
Sebastian Andersson scored in injury time as Cologne beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-1 in their Rhine derby in front of 50,000 fans. Augsburg substitute Michael Gregoritsch scored in the seventh minute of injury time to salvage a 1-1 draw at Hertha Berlin.
Hoffenheim routed last-place Greuther Fürth 6-3 away – the bottom club have now conceded 39 goals in 13 games. Bochum came from behind to beat visiting Freiburg 2-1, who have now lost three in a row after going unbeaten for the first 10 matches.
