Bankrupt, bottom-of-the-table Parma, whose players have not been paid all season, pulled off a stunning 1-0 victory over runaway Serie A leaders Juventus on Saturday.
Midfielder Jose Mauri, aged 18, scored on the hour mark as Juventus, 7-0 winners over Parma earlier in the season, suffered only their second league defeat of the campaign.
Even though the leaders rested several players ahead of their UEFA Champions League tie with AS Monaco tomorrow, it was still a remarkable result for Parma, who have only continued in the league thanks to a fund set up by the Italian Football Federation.
Photo: Reuters
Juventus remained 14 points clear at the top and on course for a fourth successive title while Parma, who have had three points deducted for breaching financial regulations, are on 16 points, still five adrift at the bottom.
Parma, who at one stage had to postpone two successive games due to their financial problems, have taken seven points from their last three outings, but remain 10 points from the safety zone with nine matches left.
Genoa beat one-from-bottom Cagliari 2-0, pushing the losers closer to Serie B, and Inter won 3-0 at Hellas Verona to end a seven-match winless run in all competitions.
Roberto Mancini’s side are joint eighth alongside AC Milan and Genoa with 41 points.
“This has given us great satisfaction in a very difficult season,” Parma coach Roberto Donadoni said. “Everyone is making a great sacrifice. I must pay my compliments to the lads, who are doing something extraordinary.”
“Today was an important match, but we didn’t understand that,” he said on the club’s Twitter feed. “We didn’t control the match and we deserved the defeat.”
Juventus rested strikers Alvaro Morata and Carlos Tevez along with playmaker Andrea Pirlo, who had recovered from a calf injury, while goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon had a stomach virus.
Parma goalkeeper Antonio Mirante kept the hosts in the game in the first half, but Parma broke through just after the hour mark when Ishak Belfodil, always a threat on the break, burst down the right and pulled the ball into the middle for Mauri to place into the top corner from just inside the area.
There were some bad-tempered exchanges as Juventus pressed for an equalizer, but Parma held out to give Donadoni his first Serie A win over Juve in 10 attempts as a coach.
Mauro Icardi gave Inter an 11th minute lead at Verona, tapping in Rodrigo Palacio’s low cross for his 16th Serie A goal of the season as the home defense appeared to be distracted by an apparent injury to Panagiotis Tachtsidis, who quickly recovered.
Palacio extended Inter’s lead after half-time before their goalkeeper, Samir Handanovic, continued his remarkable run of penalty saves by denying Luca Toni from the spot.
The Slovenian has saved seven of the last eight penalties against him.
An unlucky own-goal by Vangelis Moras in stoppage-time completed Inter’s win.
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