Fiorentina fans fall silent for fallen hero

FIORENTINA paid emotional tributes to their captain Davide Astori before and during their 1-0 Serie A win over Benevento at Stadio Artemio Franchi.

The Florence club were playing their first game since Astori died in his sleep last week.

Fans unveiled banners in his honour and players warmed up in shirts bearing his name and number, while the match was halted in the 13th minute for a sustained round of applause.

Vitor Hugo headed the only goal of the game in the 25th minute and celebrated by hugging coach Stefano Pioli before raising a shirt picturing Astori to the crowd.

In the race for the title Juventus returned to first place thanks to their 2-0 home victory against Udinese and Napoli’s 0-0 draw at Inter.

Following their dramatic Wembley comeback against Tottenham in the Champions League, spirits were high and Paulo Dybala opened the scoring by fizzing a free-kick into the top corner in the 20th minute.

Gonzalo Higuain missed a 38th-minute penalty that had been won by Dybala but the latter cheered up his fellow Argentinian by sweeping in his assist for a second goal shortly after the break.

In Spain, Atletico Madrid returned to winning ways in style by easing past Celta Vigo in a 3-0 win to reduce the gap to league leaders Barcelona to eight points.

Diego Simeone’s side saw their six-match league winning run ended by a Lionel Messi goal in the clash between LaLiga’s top two teams at the Nou Camp last week, and Atleti struggled to break down the Celta defence for long spells of the first half.

However, Antoine Griezmann stepped up to score the opener and assisted another as the second-placed side did not look back after the restart.

The Frenchman produced a great reverse pass to find Vitolo in the area, and he chipped the onrushing Ruben Blanco to double Atleti’s lead before Angel Correa rounded off the scoring.