Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 7y

Genoa defeat a warning for Juventus title hopes - Massimiliano Allegri

Juventus fell to their third defeat of the season on Sunday -- for the third time straight after a Champions League fixture -- but Massimiliano Allegri hopes the reversal can be used as a warning against relaxing in the Serie A title race.

Allegri said after the game that he had backed the referee's decision not to give his side a penalty for a foul by Lucas Ocampos on Mario Mandzukic in the area when Genoa were leading 3-0.

The game ended 3-1 thanks to an 82nd-minute goal from Miralem Pjanic, but a penalty earlier in the game could have given the Bianconeri a chance to recover.

"I told the referee that it was right not to give the penalty," Allegri told Mediaset. "If he had, we would have opened the game up again whereas today it was right for us to take a good hiding because it will serve us well for the rest of the season.

"After Tuesday's game against Sevilla, I think we relaxed a little. This way, we are all brought back down to earth and we realise that there's still a long way to go this season and that if we want to win it, we have to get through to May."

Defeat saw Juve's lead at the top of Serie A cut to four points with Roma and AC Milan both winning, while their advantage over Lazio and Atalanta is now just five points with the latter -- on a six-game winning streak and unbeaten in their last nine, with just one draw -- the next visitors to the Juventus Stadium next weekend.

The Bergamo-based club have picked up 25 points from those nine games with Juve taking 21, while Dani Alves and Leonardo Bonucci picking up injuries during Sunday's defeat.

The Italy international could miss up to two months with a thigh injury, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, while Dani Alves is set to miss four months after fracturing his fibula, the club confirmed in a statement.

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