Juve edge towards title, Parma down

29 April 2015 23:47

Juventus recovered to beat fierce rivals Fiorentina 3-2 in Turin but they will have to wait a little longer to claim the Serie A title thanks to Lazio's exploits.

Gonzalo Rodriguez's early penalty looked like spoiling Juve's party but Fernando Llorente and Carlos Tevez turned the game on its head before half-time.

After the break Tevez doubled up to reach 20 league goals for the season, yet Fiorentina provided a late scare thanks to Josip Ilicic's superb free-kick after Rodriguez had missed a second penalty.

Parma's long-awaited relegation to Serie B was mathematically confirmed as the bankrupt club succumbed to a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Lazio.

The Gialloblu have propped up the table for most of the season, but a recent flurry of positive results had kept faint hopes of a miraculous escape alive.

They could do nothing as Marco Parolo, Miroslav Klose and Antonio Candreva hit three goals in six first-half minutes to condemn them to the second tier, with substitute Balde Keita extinguishing any unlikely attempts at a last-gasp comeback as time ticked away in the capital.

Roma tightened their grip on the last Champions League qualifying place with a 3-0 win at Sassuolo.

Seydou Doumbia put the visitors on their way before Alessandro Florenzi doubled Roma's lead as the Giallorossi scored more than one goal in a league game for the first time since February 8. Miralem Pjanic put the game beyond Sassuolo's reach with a third.

AC Milan fans spelled out their deepening frustration over the fallen giants' malaise before a match which ended as a 3-1 home defeat to Genoa.

The tone for the evening was set by a sizeable group of Milan supporters who cleverly arranged themselves in the shape of the word 'basta' - Italian for 'enough' - in San Siro's south stand.

Europa League-chasing Genoa then built a two-goal lead through Andrea Bertolacci and M'Baye Niang before Philippe Mexes inspired a glimmer of hope with a classy response shortly after the hour.

But when Jeremy Menez saw red to further weaken Milan's impotent forward line, their race was run and Genoa rubbed salt in the wounds by converting a late penalty through Iago Falque.

Chievo beat relegation-threatened Cagliari 1-0 to ensure themselves top-flight football next season.

Riccardo Meggiorini struck the only goal of the game at the Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi to hand Chievo three vital points and push Cagliari closer to the drop. The Sardinians had two players - Nicola Murru and Andrea Cossu - sent off late on to complete another miserable night.

Mauricio Pinilla equalised eight minutes from time as Atalanta drew 2-2 at Cesena to clinch a vital point towards their survival bid.

Pinilla had put Atalanta ahead but Franco Brienza equalised from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Yohan Benalouane. Carlos Carbonero then put Cesena in front but the hosts could not hold on and gave away a late goal to Pinilla.

Torino maintained their pursuit of a place in Europe by following up their Turin derby victory with a 2-2 draw at Palermo.

Roberto Vitiello gave Palermo the lead but Bruno Peres put Giampiero Ventura's men back on level terms almost immediately. Luca Rigoni restored the Rosanero advantage with Maxi Lopez levelling and then scoring another goal, which was ruled out.

Elsewhere, Sampdoria missed an opportunity to strengthen their grip on a Europa League berth as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Hellas Verona.

Despite losing Afriyie Acquah to a red card, Sampdoria took the lead through Lorenzo De Silvestri, only for Luca Toni to equalise minutes later.

Source: PA