Juventus title hopes fade after defeat at Cagliari

CAGLIARI, Italy (Reuters) – Juventus' Serie A title ambitions are all but over after they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Cagliari on Saturday, in a game where the visitors were unable to make their domination of possession count.

Juventus sit fifth in the standings on 39 points, 10 behind leaders Inter Milan, who beat Udinese 1-0 on Saturday. Cagliari are 15th on 22 points, the win taking them eight points away from the relegation zone.

Cagliari failed to register a shot attempt in the opening half but scored a shock winner when Luca Mazzitelli scored with 25 minutes remaining to end Juve's six-match unbeaten league run.

"You tip your hat to your opponents, who brought home a victory that perhaps they didn't deserve, but sniffed out the opportunity and took it," Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti told Sky Sport.

"Maybe next time we can learn from that and sniff out our chance too. For certain, losing isn't nice, but we wouldn't have been happy with a draw either. "

The visitors dominated possession early on without creating any real danger until Cagliari keeper Elia Caprile saved Fabio Miretti's strike from just inside the area and the game remained goalless after a dour first half.

Juve had chances before Gianluca Gaetano floated a free kick into the area and Mazzitelli met the ball first time to send a side-footed volley on the turn past Perin.

"A beautiful night that we'll carry with us," Mazzitelli told Sky.

"We faced one of the strongest teams, but we gave more than we had. It was a victory that came with plenty of suffering."

Caprile palmed away a scorching effort from Yildiz as Juventus desperately searched for an equaliser and Yildiz sent a deflected shot off the post late on.

Juventus, who fell to their second loss in 12 league games since Spalletti took charge at the end of October, need to pick themselves up before hosting Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday and Serie A champions Napoli next weekend.