Alessandro Del Piero came off the bench to help Juventus to a 2-0 win over Inter in Serie A on Sunday as Antonio Conte’s team kept the pressure on leaders AC Milan.
Inter left Martin Caceres completely unmarked to head Juventus into the lead in the 57th minute and Del Piero — who had scored in midweek against AC Milan in the Italian Cup — sealed the win in the 70th minute.
Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon pulled off a string of fantastic saves in the first half to keep his side level in the hotly contested match, known as Italy’s Derby.
Photo: Reuters
Milan, who beat AS Roma 2-1 on Saturday, lead second-placed Juventus by four points, but Del Piero, in his last season with Juve after 19 years at the club, has urged his teammates to keep believing.
“We believe we can win the title because we have the ability, of course Milan are ahead and have their destiny in their own hands,” the Juventus captain said. “We have to be good at picking up points every game, hoping that Milan lose some.”
Inter slipped to eighth and they have now won just one of their past 10 league games.
“The disappointment is that we played really well for an hour and then we conceded from a dead-ball situation, a lack of focus for an umpteenth time, leaving Caceres on his own,” Inter coach Claudio Ranieri said. “That’s where our game ended, they grew stronger, and we didn’t have the strength and the determination to attack like we did in the first half. It’s a defect that we have and we’re not managing to change, at the first piece of bad luck the boys crumble.”
Inter could have taken the lead in the 14th minute when Maicon picked out Diego Milito, but Buffon got down well to block the Argentine’s shot.
Juventus should have gone in front moments later when Caceres lifted the ball into the area, but Alessandro Matri headed straight at Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
Buffon pulled off a brilliant save to deny Diego Forlan from point-blank range and then minutes later did well again to keep out Milito’s effort from a similar position.
Juventus took the lead seconds after Julio Cesar had tipped Claudio Marchisio’s cross over the bar. The Inter defense went missing when they left Caceres — who was having a brilliant game — all alone in the area to head home Andrea Pirlo’s corner.
Juve sealed the game when Arturo Vidal threaded the ball through for Del Piero to race onto and drill into the bottom-left corner.
It could have been worse for Inter when Giorgio Chiellini sent a dangerous ball across the face of goal for Fabio Quagliarella, but Maicon slid in in the nick of time to clear his effort off the line.
Elsewhere, Catania came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Napoli after late goals from Nicolas Spolli and substitute Davide Lanzafame.
Napoli appeared to be cruising to victory after second-half goals from Blerim Dzemaili and Edinson Cavani, but Spolli pulled one back in the 75th minute and Lanzafame equalized in the 80th, two minutes after coming off the bench.
The result is a blow to Napoli’s bid for third place, especially after Modibo Diakite’s late winner gave SS Lazio a 1-0 victory against Cagliari.
At the other end of the table, Novara Calcio were held to a scoreless draw at home to fellow strugglers Lecce, a result that helped neither side’s hopes of avoiding the drop.
Cesena were held to a 2-2 draw by Parma and were unable to take advantage of Novara’s draw. Genoa also drew 2-2, with Fiorentina, thanks to Rodrigo Palacio’s equalizer a minute from time.
Chievo Verona drew 1-1 with AC Siena, while Atalanta BC ended Bologna’s impressive recent run by winning 2-0 through goals from Manolo Gabbiadini and Simone Tiribocchi.
Gabbiadini headed into the net in the 50th minute and Tiribocchi sealed the result in stoppage-time to inflict Bologna’s second loss of the calendar year.
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