Chiellini gets Juventus off mark as Napoli win Tuscany thriller

Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini scored the first goal of the Serie A season on Saturday as the champions kicked off their bid for a ninth consecutive title with a pedestrian 1-0 win at Parma.

As the champions struggled without coach Maurizio Sarri, absent from the bench as he recovers from pneumonia, Serie A runners-up Napoli won a 4-3 thriller in Fiorentina.

Skipper Lorenzo Insigne scored a brace for Napoli including the 67th-minute winner and had a role in Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon's goals for the southerners.

In Parma, Chiellini made the difference early, connecting with an Alex Sandro deflected shot to fire in from close range after 21 minutes in Emilia Romagna.

"He (Sarri) can be proud because the team have shown that we are united, that we can train with dedication and application. We will improve, but the important thing is to grow by winning," said 35-year-old Chiellini after just his 27th goal in his 14-year Juventus career.

Sarri's arrival has been hailed as the dawn of a new era for Juventus with a different exciting style of football.

But the Turin giants new-look side mirrored Massimiliano Allegri's of last season. Apart from Argentine Gonzalo Higuain, back from a loan to Chelsea, preferred up front alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in place of Paulo Dybala, the team was the same as last season.

New Dutch defender Matthijs De Ligt remained on the bench with Welsh international Aaron Ramsey not in the group, while French midfielder Adrien Rabiot came on after an hour in place of Sami Khedira.

Sarri's assistant Giovanni Martusciello was on the bench and took instructions from the former Napoli and Chelsea boss.

"I spoke to him before, during the break and at the end of the game, when obviously he was much happier with the result," he said.

"Being a perfectionist he was still angry at the mistakes made." Martusciello defended the lineup, insisting "taking a gamble in the first game of the season would have been unnecessary".

"This is a team full of champions."
- Ronaldo frustrated -
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