Sports
Juventus have plenty of room for improvement
Juventus have plenty of room for improvement
Juventus’ Fernando Llorente reacts during his team’s Serie A match against Palermo at Juventus Stadium in Turin. (Reuters)
DPA/Rome
Serie A leaders Juventus resumed their winning ways on the weekend, but failed to fully convince in their 2-0 against lowly Palermo.
Success came after a 1-1 league draw to Sassuolo and a 1-0 defeat at Olympiacos in the Champions League, and put the Bianconeri three points clear of Roma again ahead of a Wednesday date at Genoa.
Spain striker Fernando Llorente was on target for the first time in the season, but even coach Massimiliano Allegri noted that Juve need to work harder as they seek a fourth consecutive title and progress to the knock-out phase in Europe.
“It was a difficult game,” Allegri said. “We created less than Wednesday (at Olympiacos) in Athens, but we lost there and today (Sunday) we won.
“We must try to improve our game and get better results. We must play better technically than we did in the first half.”
Llorente said he hopes that more goals will follow after he finally ended his scoring rot. “It’s a special day for me because it’s my first goal of the season and I couldn’t wait to bag it. It’ll definitely help me going forward to keep aiding the team,” he said.
The unbeaten Bianconeri have 22 points from eight games, while Roma take 19 into their home game with Cesena on Wednesday.
Roma failed to impress in a 0-0 draw at surprising Sampdoria and have just one win from their last five outings. But they at least kept a clean sheet five after being battered 7-1 by Bayern Munich.
“Now I can say that we have forgotten (Tuesday’s) defeat against Bayern,” coach Rudi Garcia said.
“When you play a game like this against a third-placed team who have not lost since the start of the season, it means that we played fully up to our standard. We only missed the goal.”
Udinese and Sampdoria follow the top two with 16 points each into away games at Fiorentina and Inter Milan.
Llorente is not the only forward hoping for more goals after finally getting on the scoresheet.
Argentine Gonzalo Higuain and his Napoli team visit Bergamo side Atalanta after his hat-trick against Verona in a 6-2 triumph. Verona on Thursday host Lazio whose German veteran Miroslav Klose was on target at last in a 2-1 against Torino for a fourth straight win.
The Rome side are on 15 points along with AC Milan, who boast a league leading 17 goals ahead of their trip to Cagliari.
Juventus, Inter Milan in another spat over 2006
Juventus and Inter Milan have become embroiled in another spat over the 2005/06 Serie A season when Juventus were stripped of the title, which was handed to Inter, and relegated over the Calciopoli corruption scandal.
The row broke out on Friday when Juventus president Andre Agnelli paid tribute to former Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti, who resigned as the club’s honorary president last week.
In doing so, Agnelli said, referring to 2006, that “due to his love of Inter, Moratti accepted a scudetto that they had never won.”
In an angry response, Inter released a statement which said: “FC Internazionale notes another attempt by the president Agnelli, to muddy the waters and change the course of history.
“Unfortunately for him and the whole of Italian football, 2006 was a disastrous year in which the championship was awarded legitimately to Inter by the Italian football federation (FIGC).
“Juventus were relegated to Serie B along with their reputation. These are the facts. That does not allow anyone to alter or to forget them.”
And the wounds were reopened again.