Quagliarella on target in Juventus victory
Reuters - Sunday 18 December 2011, 22:24
Fabio Quagliarella scored
his first goal for a year to help Juventus win 2-0 at over lowly
Novara in Serie A on Sunday while Udinese, who began the weekend
level on points with Juve at the top, drew 2-2 at Lazio.
Simone Pepe was the other scorer for Serie A leaders
Juventus who stayed unbeaten this season after 15 games and went
two points clear of titleholders AC Milan and Udinese.
Giampiero Pinzi finished off a slick counter-attack in the
74th minute to give Udinese, who began the season hoping to
avoid relegation, a draw in an entertaining match.
Antonio Floro Flores had opened the scoring for Udinese in
the 28th minute before Lazio replied either side of half-time
through Senad Lulic and an own goal from Damiano Ferronetti who
deflected Miroslav Klose's shot into the net.
AS Roma put recent internal problems behind them and won 3-1
at Champions League contenders Napoli, who are struggling to
compete on two fronts.
An early own goal by Napoli goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis put
Roma on course and Pablo Osvaldo added the second just before
the hour. Marek Hamsik pulled one back before Fabio Simplicio
completed the scoring.
Andrea Ranocchia's second-half goal gave Claudio Ranieri's
Inter their fifth win in six league games, 1-0 at Cesena,
although they were somewhat lucky as the Sea Horses had most of
the play and chances.
Parma scored twice in the last five minutes to draw 3-3 with
Lecce, Genoa beat Bologna 2-1 and Catania overcame Palermo 2-0
in Sunday afternoon's other games.
Juventus are on 33 points, two ahead of AC Milan, who
briefly went top with a 2-0 home win over Siena on Saturday, and
Udinese. Lazio have 29 and Inter 23.
Quagliarella, who has a knack of scoring spectacular goals,
last hit the net against Chievo on Dec 19 last year but shortly
afterwards suffered a knee ligament injury which ruled him out
for the rest of last season.
"This is the cherry on the cake," the Italy international
told Juve's website. "It hasn't been easy in
the last months but I've always felt I had the backing of the
coach and the team."
Alessandro Del Piero was given a rare start this season for
Juventus who needed only four minutes to break the deadlock and
Pepe turned in Paolo De Ceglie's low cross at the far post.
Dominating the game, Juve missed a hatful of chances before
Quagliarella headed in from a corner with 15 minutes left.