Paul Pogba to Chelsea: £70m midfielder starts for Juventus despite transfer speculation, but suffers shock defeat

The France international could not stop his current side losing 1-0 on the opening weekend of the Serie A season

Simon Rice
Monday 24 August 2015 07:41 EDT
Comments
Paul Pogba
Paul Pogba (GETTY IMAGES)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Paul Pogba, a £70m transfer target for Chelsea, played for Juventus on the opening weekend of the Serie A season despite the ongoing uncertainty around his future.

The Independent understands that the Blues will spend the remaining days of the transfer window trying to persuade Juventus to let the France international leave.

Despite the interest, Juventus felt that Pogba was in the right frame of mind to play in their opening match of the season against Udinese.

It was a match in which the Serie A champions would slump to a shock 1-0 home defeat against Udinese.

Juventus, who have gone through the last two seasons without losing at home in the league, dominated the game as expected but were caught out when Cyril Thereau scored at the far post after 78 minutes.

It was a miserable start to a campaign in which Juventus hope to win a fifth consecutive title.

Juve's last home league defeat was against Sampdoria in January 2013, a run of 47 games.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in