Juve are hovering above the elimination places in the league table with just three points from four fixtures in Europe's elite club competition
Sporting Lisbon's Uruguayan midfielder Maximiliano Araujo and Sporting Lisbon's Danish midfielder Morten Hjulmand reacts at the end of the UEFA Champions League - league phase day 4 football match between Juventus and Sporting CP at the Allianz stadium in Turin. Pic/AFP
Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw by Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday as Luciano Spalletti's new team failed to claim a first win in this season's Champions League. Dusan Vlahovic earned Juve a point in Turin by poking home Khephren Thuram's low cross in the 34th minute and cancelling out Maximiliano Araujo's early opener for the Portuguese champions.
Juve are hovering above the elimination places in the league table with just three points from four fixtures in Europe's elite club competition. Sporting meanwhile are nicely tucked in the play-off positions at the halfway point of the league phase with seven points. Rui Borges' team are only outside the direct last-16 qualification places on goal difference, although that will change after Wednesday night's fixtures. Sporting were the better team in the opening moments of the match and it was no surprise when Araujo crashed in the opening goal off the post in the 12th minute.
And the crossbar denied the away side a second moments later, Francisco Trincao watching his wildly deflected strike crash out off the woodwork. That escape woke up Juve who then dominated the rest of the opening period, with a revived Vlahovic twice going close before he eventually forced home his seventh goal of the season.
Juve had tried to offload Vlahovic in the close season and the club's highest-paid player had seemed certain to leave next summer when his contract expires. But Giorgio Chiellini, a club icon and now Juve's strategic director, said that the "door is not closed" for Vlahovic to extend his stay in Turin. Both teams cancelled each other out after Vlahovic's leveller, until substitute Jonathan David headed a great chance straight at Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva in stoppage time.
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