Tevez secures spoils as Juventus stroll on
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E-mail Xinhua, March 24, 2014
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Carlos Tevez got the winner at Calcio Catania to help restore Juventus's 14-point Serie A lead. |
Carlos Tevez scored the winner to help Juventus beat 10-man Catania on Sunday in a bad-temper Italian Serie A game which saw both coaches dismissed.
Thanks to the angled drive from Tevez in the 59th minute, Antonio Conte's men achieved their sixth consecutive league win after overcoming a spirited performance from the league's bottom club and restored Juve's 14-point lead over Roma.
Catania were left with 10 men in the 67th minute when Gonzalo Bergessio was sent off for a second yellow for elbowing Giorgio Chiellini.
Both coaches had earlier been sent to the stand following an incident in which Bergessio avoided a second yellow earlier after appearing to catch Leonardo Bonucci with his arm.
Juventus head coach Conte warned his side against any complacency as Roma still have the chance to grab the Serie A title from them
"It's another step towards the Scudetto. We have to give credit to Roma, who are also doing something incredible, so we need to keep on our toes as nothing has been decided yet," he said.
He suggested that the Europa League could distract his team.
"The Europa League will make us play every three days and Roma have shown they won't give up to the end, so we can't lower our guard," he said.
Napoli's chance to secure a Champions League spot suffered a blow as they lost to Fiorentina 1-0 at home.
Joaquin's header two minutes from time secured the points against Rafa Benitez's side, who played more than half the game with 10 men after Faouzi Ghoulam's straight red card.
The victory ensured the Florence club is now seven points behind Napoli.
Fiorentina head coach Vicenzo Montella insisted that his side could finish third this season.
"This is an extremely positive day for us," he said. "Our duty is to give our all, to keep those behind us further away and close up on those ahead of us. It's our duty to believe in third."
His Napoli counterpart Rafa Benitez was concerned about his side's prospect of finishing second this season.
"I continue to have faith and am still targeting Roma in second place. Of course it's a concern the gap has opened up to six points, but we have to do our duty and see what happens. When we play like this, we have to win," he said
Milan drew 1-1 with Lazio to avoid a fourth consecutive Serie A defeat but remained in the bottom half of Serie A.
They went ahead just before half-time when Kaka's cross was directed in by the unfortunate Anbdoulay Konko, but Lazio hit back through Alvaro Gonzalez's first goal of the season in the second half.
Mario Balotelli almost won it for Clarence Seedorf's side but saw his fierce shot cannon back off a post.
Inter were shocked at home as they lost to Atalanta 2-1. A brace from Giacomo Bonaventura, including a 90th minute winner, gave the visitors the win.
The 24-year-old put Atalanta ahead after 35 minutes only for Walter Mazzarri's men to equalize instantly through Mauro Icardi.
Inter hit the woodwork three times as they went in search of a winner and were hit with a sucker punch at the death when the unmarked Bonaventura's header condemned the home side to only their second home defeat in Serie A this season.
Parma are level on points with Inter but stay sixth after seeing their three-game winning run ended after a 1-1 draw with Genoa.
Elsewhere, Bologna climbed out of the relegation zone after Lazaros Christodoulopoulos bagged a 78th minute penalty to secure a 1-0 win against Cagliari, and Udinese won by the same score against Sassuolo who remain deep in trouble.
Sampdoria made it three wins in four with a 5-0 demolition of Verona.
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