Juventus spared by VAR in win over FIorentina
Adrien Rabiot's header was enough to earn Juventus a 1-0 win over Fiorentina that lifted it into the top half of the Serie A table despite some late controversy.
Rabiot scored the winner in the first half of a typically feisty affair between two long-standing rivals at the Allianz Stadium on Monday (AEDT), moving the beleaguered Bianconeri up to ninth.
Juve's former Fiorentina pair Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa started alongside Angel Di Maria for the first time, and the World Cup winner outshone them by teeing up Rabiot's goal in a bright display.
Vlahovic saw an effort chalked off for offside following a VAR review, but Juve will feel that decision was evened out when Gaetano Castrovilli saw a stunning late volley disallowed following a similar intervention.
Chances were at a premium during a heated start, before Filip Kostic squandered a couple of decent openings.
Juve made its superiority count after 34 minutes, however.
A teasing ball from Di Maria was met with a firm header by Rabiot, which Pietro Terracciano could not claw away as goal-line technology confirmed it crept in.
Vlahovic thought he had scored against Fiorentina for the first time since his acrimonious departure last year when he lobbed Terracciano from Kostic's pass, only to be called offside by the tightest of margins.
Vlahovic's replacement Moise Kean was then thwarted by Terracciano soon after entering the fray, before Luka Jovic almost levelled with a glancing header.
Fiorentina was then denied in contentious circumstances one minute from time, a VAR review deeming Luca Ranieri to have been offside before Castrovilli found the bottom-left corner with a thumping volley from range.
