Juventus spring to life with five-goal show
Reuters - Saturday 17 March 2012, 22:57
Juventus ended their run of four
successive Serie A draws with an emphatic 5-0 thrashing of
Fiorentina, who played for more than one hour with 10 men on
Saturday.
Still unbeaten this season, second-placed Juventus stayed
four points behind AC Milan after the leaders won 2-0 at Parma
with a Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty and a brilliant solo goal by
Urby Emanuelson.
Milan, who brought on Gennaro Gattuso late in the game for
his first appearance since suffering an eye problem in September
which led to speculation he may have to abandon his career, have
60 points from 28 games.
Club president Silvio Berlusconi was among the crowd for
Milan's fourth successive away win.
"The presence of the president away from home was a good
sign. When he's here there's more motivation to do well," said
coach Massimiliano Allegri.
"He's happy with the performance and with the win. The
players played a good game and when it was time to grit their
teeth they did so."
Juventus had drawn six of their last seven games, allowing
Milan to overhaul them in the process, but got off the mark in
style at Fiorentina as Mirko Vucinic curled in an exquisite
effort from the edge of the area after 15 minutes.
Six minutes later, Fiorentina had Alessio Cerci sent off for
kicking Paolo De Ceglie off the ball and when Chilean Arturo
Vidal scored a second for the visitors before the half-hour, it
was all over as a contest.
Claudio Marchisio, Andrea Pirlo and substitute Simone Padoin
were on target after the break as Juve chalked up their biggest
win of the season.
Predictably, Fiorentina fans jeered their team in the second
half. Their side are 15th in the table with 32 points, only
seven clear of the relegation zone.
Milan were missing Robinho, Mark van Bommel, Kevin-Prince
Boateng, Ignazio Abate, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro Nesta and
Alexander Pato for their visit to Roberto Donadoni's Parma, who
are 17th with 31 points.
BRIGHT START
Parma started brightly with Sebastian Giovinco pouncing on a
mistake only to fire over before Jaime Valdes ended a good run
by shooting wide from the edge of the penalty area.
Milan won a penalty with their first real attack when
Emanuelson's shot hit Cristian Zaccardo's arm and Ibrahimovic,
Serie A's leading scorer, made no mistake from the spot as he
fired his 20th goal of the season.
Parma's misfortune in front of goal continued as Gabriel
Paletta's header bounced off Thiago Silva and struck the bar.
However, Milan were creating plenty of chances of their own with
Stephan El Shaarawy hitting the post.
Milan wrapped up the match in the 54th minute when Antonio
Nocerino slipped the ball to Emanuelson on the counter-attack.
The Dutchman burst between two defenders, surged forward,
slipped past goalkeeper Antonio Mirante and tucked the ball into
the net for his second goal of the campaign.
Just to prove it was not Parma's night, Sergio Floccari
struck the crossbar with a fierce volley in stoppage time.