Mandzukic, Dybala help Juve stun Fiorentina

Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala struck late as champions Juventus continued their Serie A fightback with a stunning 3-1 win over Fiorentina in Turin on Sunday.

Juventus, claiming their seventh consecutive league win following a disastrous start to the season, moved up to fourth place at the expense of Roma to sit six points behind leaders Inter Milan.

Historically, Juventus have been Fiorentina’s biggest tormentors in Serie A, La Viola losing 70 times to the Turin giants while conceding a club record of 247 goals.

Match referee Daniele Orsato stunned Juventus Stadium, not for the first time in the match, when he pointed to the spot after consulting the linesman when Federico Bernardeschi tumbled under contact from Giorgio Chiellini.

Josip Ilicic stepped up and smashed the ball high into the net to give the visitors a third-minute lead, but Juve were quickly back on level terms.

Goals galore

On six minutes ex-Fiorentina forward Juan Cuadrado got his head to Patrice Evra’s floated cross to send it over Ciprian Tatarusanu and inside the ‘keeper’s far post.

In the 80th minute, Paul Pogba found Dybala running into the area and when Tatarusanu came out to close him down, it left a loose ball for Mandzukic to slide in and slam into the roof of the net.

The hosts were soon celebrating again after Dybala finished off a late foray into the area by rounding Tatarusanu and running across the six-yard box to slot home.