Juve defeat neighbours, are one point shy of title

Milan, April 29: A pair of late goals courtesy of Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio handed Juventus a 2-0 win over Torino in the Turin derby on Sunday and kept the champions on track for a successful title defence.

Elsewhere, Fiorentina maintained their bid for a third place finish thanks to a 3-0 rout at Sampdoria although La Viola were pushed back down to fourth when Milan secured a come-from-behind 4-2 win over plucky Catania.

Earlier on Sunday Pablo Osvaldo scored a hat-trick and Erik Lamela one goal as Roma trounced Siena 4-0 at the Olympic Stadium to move up to fifth, while Palermo moved out of the relegation zone thanks to a shock 1-0 win at home to Inter Milan.

Inter’s 13th reverse of the season was compounded by an Achilles tendon injury

Late goals from Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio help the Italian leaders beat Torino 2-0

suffered by captain Javier Zanetti, and left the Nerazzurri in seventh, eight points off Fiorentina, who occupy the third and last Champions League place.

Zanetti, however, insisted that his career is not over despite the injury.

At Turin, after a stubborn display from the hosts at a rain-hit Olympic Stadium, it took a sublime goal from Vidal four minutes from the final whistle to send Juve’s bench into raptures.

Six minutes Marchisio sealed

later Juve’s 25th win of the campaign, which restored their 11point lead on Napoli with just 12 points up for grabs in the remaining four games.

“Compliments to Torino because they made life difficult for us. But we wanted to win this game and we achieved that aim,” said Juve coach Antonio Conte.

Milan, meanwhile, suffered a scare by Catania before Giampaolo Pazzini came off the bench to inspire a 4-2 win at the San Siro, which gave the Rossoneri a one-point lead over Fiorentina in their duel for third place.

“We had to win this game,” said Mario Balotelli, who slotted home a late penalty on his return from a two-match ban.

“We made stupid mistakes to concede two goals, and then Pazzini came on and scored a double. Hat’s off to him.” — AFP