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Juvetus extend lead as Inter lose to Fiorentina
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-09 08:53
ROME, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Juventus stretched their Serie A lead on Wednesday
despite a 1-1 draw at home to Parma after second-placed Inter Milan lost 2-1 at
Fiorentina.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
of juventus scores against Parma during their Italian Serie A soccer match
in Turin. [Reuters] | The results gave Juventus 63
points from 24 matches, nine ahead of Inter, who they meet at the San Siro on
Sunday.
Third-placed AC Milan (51 points) made up ground on the top two with a 5-0
demolition of Treviso.
Juventus, who had won all 12 of their league matches at the Stadio delle Alpi
this season, fell behind in the 39th minute when Daniele Dessena fired Marco
Marchionni's low cross into the net at Gianluigi Buffon's near post.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulled Juve level five minutes later, running on to Adrian
Mutu's long forward pass before slotting the ball past keeper Matteo Guardalben.
Guardalben did well to beat away a Mutu shot early in the second half, but it
was Parma who wasted the best chance to retake the lead when Corradi pounced on
Manuele Blasi's short backpass to go through alone on goal only to shoot wide.
The game almost ended on a sour note when Patrick Vieira went down
theatrically to earn the hosts an 88th-minute penalty.
Juventus, who benefited from a series of favourable refereeing decisions in a
1-0 win over Udinese at the weekend, seemed about to win another match in
controversial circumstances but Del Piero blasted his spot kick against the bar.
"We're happy -- we've got another point advantage (on Inter)," Juve coach
Fabio Capello said.
"We could have had two but the pitch penalised us more than it did them.
Parma's goal was a farce. Three of our players slipped over just as he (Dessena)
was about to take his shot."
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