Alessandro Matri's winner sunk Fiorentina and sent
Juventus one point clear at the top of Serie A.
The summer signing from Cagliari netted in the 65th
minute to lift the hosts clear of Udinese.
Leonardo Bonucci opened the scoring for Juve in the
13th minute, but Stevan Jovetic levelled the scores
in the 57th minute.
Fiorentina's winless streak is now five games and they
dropped to 12th in the standings as a result of the
defeat.
Viola goalkeeper Artur Boruc was quickly brought into
the action when he made a good save to deny Simone Pepe
in the seventh minute.
However, he failed to stop Bonucci's close-range effort
six minutes later after he parried Claudio Marchisio's
shot from the edge of the area, allowing the defender
to poke the ball into the net.
Boruc redeemed himself with a couple of excellent saves
as Juve continued to press, the best coming in the 38th
minute when he dived to deny Mirko Vucinic's 20-yard
strike.
Juve defender Andrea Barzagli almost doubled the home
side's lead in first-half injury time, but once again
the excellent Boruc saved the shot which took a huge
deflection off Matri.
Alberto Gilardino headed well over as the visitors
threatened in the early stages of the second half and
they levelled in the 57th minute.
Gilardino raced down the right and cut the ball back
for Juan Manuel Vargas, who laid it off for Jovetic
to fire a shot into the bottom left corner from outside
the area.
Giorgio Chiellini brought a save out of Boruc from
an Andrea Pirlo corner before Juve restored their lead.
Simone Pepe set up Matri, who beat Boruc from close
range.
The former Celtic keeper produced another good save
to deny Matri before Pepe shot wastefully wide following
a break from Arturo Vidal as the visitors continued
to threaten.
Matri had a half-volley comfortably saved by Boruc
before Gilardino almost snatched a point for Fiorentina
in stoppage time only to fire a half-chance wide from
inside the area. |
