The Japan Times - Inter stunned by Udinese, defiant Vlahovic decisive for Juve

Cristian Chivu's team trail by three points the champions, Juve, Roma and promoted Cremonese who all have two wins from their opening two fixtures of the new season.

Inter looked on their way to a thumping victory in the 18th minute when Denzel Dumfries ended a confused passage of play by tapping into an empty net.

However, Dumfries was then at fault for handling in the area, giving Keinan Davis a chance to score from the penalty spot in the 29th minute which he did not waste.

And France's Arthur Atta stunned the San Siro five minutes before half-time with a beautiful curling strike which would give Udinese a win few would have predicted prior to kick-off.

Federico Dimarco was denied a thumping leveller shortly after half-time when Marcus Thuram was caught offside and after that the hosts huffed and puffed to little effect against Udinese's resilient defence.

Next weekend Inter travel to face their fiercest rivals Juve, who squeezed past Genoa with Vlahovic netting for the second time in as many games after being taken off the transfer list.

- Defiant Vlahovic -

Juve were struggling to break down spirited Genoa until substitute Vlahovic headed home Filip Kostic's corner when left completely unmarked in the 73rd minute.

The Serbia striker looked destined to be sold in the summer as Juve brought in Jonathan David and pushed to sign Randal Kolo Muani from Paris Saint-Germain.

But on Thursday sporting director Damien Comolli said that there was a "99 percent chance" that Vlahovic would stay at Juve and the 25-year-old rewarded the Turin giants with the winning goal at the Stadio Liuigi Ferraris.

"People are always going to talk, all I can do is to train as best I can. I'm very happy to have helped the team and I hope it will be the same in the future," said Vlahovic to DAZN.

"Honestly I don't know what's changed. I just want to train well and make myself available to the team."

Vlahovic stood defiantly facing Juve's delirious support with his arms aloft, as he did when scoring against Parma last weekend, after managing to stay at the club that spent 70 million euros to snatch him from Fiorentina in January 2022.

His 60th goal for Juve was the highlight from a keenly-contested match which lacked in goalmouth incident, although Igor Tudor's team escaped being pegged back in the final seconds of the game as Patrizio Masini's looping head struck the crossbar.

Lazio hammered sorry Verona 4-0 while Fiorentina played out a drab goalless draw at Torino in the other of the day's early kick-offs.

T.Ikeda--JT