European roundup: Vlahovic’s late header keeps Juventus on Inter’s tails
Dusan Vlahovic’s stoppage-time header helped Juventus come from behind to win 2-1 at 10-man Salernitana.
The Bianconeri had run out comfortable 6-1 winners in the Coppa Italia tie between the sides in Turin on Thursday night – but found themselves behind shortly before half-time at the Arechi Stadium when Giulio Maggiore finished off a swift counter-attack.
Maggiore was then dismissed for a second caution in the 53rd minute and Juve substitute Samuel Iling Junior equalised just after the hour. When it seemed Serie A’s bottom club would hold out for a valuable point in their survival fight, Vlahovic headed in a looping cross from Danilo to seal a dramatic win and put Juventus back to two points behind Serie A leaders Inter.
Earlier, Napoli’s Serie A title defence suffered another setback as they lost 3-0 at Torino on Sunday, with strikes by Antonio Sanabria, Nikola Vlasic and Alessandro Buongiorno moving the hosts into the Top 10.
With only one win in their past six league games, Napoli fell to ninth in the standings with the defeat, trailing leaders Inter by 20 points at the halfway stage of the season.
Napoli were reduced to 10 men when second-half substitute Pasquale Mazzocchi, recently signed from Salernitana, was sent off for a high-boot challenge on Valentino Lazaro just five minutes into his debut.
“It is not the most beautiful victory,” the Torino head coach, Ivan Juric, told DAZN. “With the sending off it all became a bit easier today, but I have experienced many beautiful matches at the helm of Toro. We have to keep working like this and the guys have to keep believing in their means.”
Torino’s methodical offensive finally broke through just before halftime when Ivan Ilic’s free kick took a deflection from Duván Zapata and fell to Sanabria for a quick finish.
The hosts doubled their lead early in the second half when Vlasic got the ball from Zapata and dribbled his way into an opening before finding the corner of the net.
“Perfect week with renewal and goals, I am very happy to have extended with this club,” said Sanabria, who signed a two-year contract extension on Thursday. “I felt great here from the first day, the people immediately transmitted their love to me.”
Torino’s first win over Napoli since 2015 was sealed when Lazaro’s corner kick was nodded home by Buongiorno, to make it 3-0, a position from which Napoli failed to recover.
Meanwhile, Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored his second goal in Milan colours as the Rossoneri steamrolled bottom club Empoli to maintain their sixpoint cushion in third. Milan remain nine points off their rivals Inter at the summit, but enjoyed a comfortable afternoon, with Olivier Giroud’s penalty and Chaka Traorè’s late goal rounding off a 3-0 triumph.
Lazio lie in sixth after a battling 2-1 victory at lowly Udinese. The home side cancelled out Luca Pellegrini’s 12th minute opener when their captain Walace, the Brazilian midfielder, levelled on the hour mark. Substitute Matías Vecino had the final say, however, drilling home an inch-perfect daisycutter after being put through by Felipe Anderson.
Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick as Paris St Germain coasted to a 9-0 win over sixth-tier Revel in their Coupe de France tie. Marco Asensio was also on target in the first half, when the Regional 1 side scored an own goal, before Mbappé completed his treble three minutes after the restart at the Stade Pierre-Fabre in Castres.
Gonçalo Ramos added a sixth from the penalty spot before Randal Kolo Muani scored twice late on, either side of Cher Ndour’s first PSG goal, to wrap up a comfortable night’s work for the Ligue 1 leaders. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s second-half strike gave Marseille - depleted by players away at the Africa Cup of Nations - a 1-0 win at fifthtier Thionville Lusitanos. In an all-Ligue 1 tie, Monaco edged past Lens 6-5 on penalties having been 2-0 up inside the opening 20 minutes before the hosts mounted a fightback to draw 2-2.
Barcelona were made to work for their place in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey with a 3-2 win at fourth-tier
Barbastro. Raphinha struck in each half to seemingly put the LaLiga side in control. The Segunda B outfit, though, pulled a goal back before Robert Lewandowski added Barça’s third from the penalty spot with two minutes left. Barbastro reduced the deficit again in stoppage time when Marc Prat slotted home a spot-kick, but there was to be no grandstand finish.
Villarreal’s tie at Unionistas was abandoned following a lighting problem at the Municipal Reina Sofia stadium ahead of the start of extra-time, with the scores level at 1-1. Last-season’s runners-up Osasuna needed extra-time to get past third tier Castellon 1-0 - as did Valencia in their 2-1 win at Cartagena, who had played the second half with 10 men. Celta Vigo fought out at 4-2 win at Segunda Division Amorebieta, while Mallorca won 3-0 at Burgos. Sevilla stole to a 2-1 victory over 10-man Racing Ferrol, while Athletic Bilbao beat Eibar 3-0 and Real Sociedad won 1-0 in Malaga.