Luckless Juve lose more ground on Milan
Reuters - Sunday 11 March 2012, 22:19
Juventus hit the woodwork three
times and had a goal controversially disallowed as they were
held 0-0 at Genoa on Sunday, their sixth draw in seven Serie A
games leaving them further behind leaders AC Milan.
Juve dropped four points behind champions Milan who beat
Lecce 2-0 with goals from Antonio Nocerino and Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, the Swede's 19th league goal of the season.
The fireworks were at third-placed Lazio, who had two
players sent off and lost 3-1 at home to Bologna despite being
gifted a bizarre own goal.
Daniele Portanova and Alessandro Diamanti put Bologna 2-0
ahead in half an hour, then Lazio had Matuzalem sent off for
elbowing before the break.
Lazio pulled one back in the 56th minute when Bologna
defender Matteo Rubin's back-pass wrong-footed goalkeeper
Jean-Francois Gillet and trickled into the net.
But Lazio had Alvaro Gonzalez sent off two minutes later for
a tackle from behind and Rene Krhin almost immediately made it
3-1 for Bologna, his goal followed by a shirtless celebration.
Milan moved on to 57 points from 27 games with Juventus on
53 and Lazio on 48.
Udinese, level fourth with Napoli on 46 points, lost 1-0 at
lowly Novara, who moved off the bottom with 20 points.
Lecce's defeat left them in deep trouble with 25 points in
18th place, six adrift of Cagliari and safety.
Cesena, bottom with 17 points, went down 2-0 at home to
Siena in a match which hinged on a controversial incident in the
73rd minute.
Siena were awarded a penalty for a sliding tackle by Luca
Ceccarelli, who was also sent off although replays suggested he
made contact with the ball.
Claudio Terzi's penalty was saved by Francesco Antonioli but
Franco Brienza scored from the rebound, then Albanian Erjon
Bogdani volleyed the second in the 81st minute.
Fiorentina's indifferent season continued with a 1-0 defeat
at Catania that left them 15th with 32 points. Francesco Lodi
scored with a penalty just before the hour for the Sicilians who
are eighth with 38 points.
Juventus nearly fell behind after only 10 seconds at Genoa
but Rodrigo Palacio's dipping shot was brilliantly turned over
the bar by Gianluigi Buffon.
Both teams had further chances in a flowing first half which
somehow ended goalless.
There was even more drama after the break when a Mirko
Vucinic back-header bounced off the bar and the Montenegro
forward also struck the foot of the post with another effort.
Simone Pepe should have broken through when he was allowed a
free shot on goal from a free-kick but instead whacked his
effort against the woodwork from six metres.
He had the ball in the net shortly afterwards but it was
ruled out for offside, although replays suggested he was level
with the last defender when the ball was played through.
Milan, who survived in the Champions League by the skin of
their teeth after losing 3-0 at Arsenal on Tuesday for a 4-3
aggregate win, took a seventh-minute lead against Lecce with
Nocerino's deflected shot.
Ibrahimovic, who scored a 15-minute hat-trick in the 4-0 win
at Palermo last week, rifled home a volley in the 65th
minute from another chance set up by Robinho.