Juve Routs Perugia, Claims Serie A Lead
Copyright � 2000 Nando Media
Copyright � 2000 Agence France-Presse
ROME (January 16, 2000 12:49 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - Juventus returned to the Italian league lead Sunday with a 3-0 victory over Perugia as title rival Lazio was held to a scoreless draw at Reggina.
Alessandro Del Piero's first-half penalty and last-ditch
goals from Frenchman Zinedine Zidane and Yugoslav Darko
Kovacevic guaranteed Juventus the "Winter Scudetto" - the
Serie A leadership at the halfway stage of the Italian season.
After 17 matches, Juve have 36 points, one more than Lazio,
leaders at the start of the day but well below their best at
Reggina despite having two appeals for penalties turned down.
At the Olympic stadium, Francesco Totti scored twice for AS
Roma in a 3-1 win over Verona to steal the limelight from
Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata, who was making his debut for the club
just 48 hours after signing from Perugia.
The result lifted Roma into third spot, level on points with
Parma, held 0-0 at Lecce, and four behind Juventus.
Inter Milan needed an 82nd-minute goal from Francesco
Moriero to overcome bottom-of-the-table Cagliari 2-1 at the San
Siro. Inter moved up to fifth, a point ahead of neighbor AC
Milan, who were playing at Udinese later.
Late goals from Marco Ferrante and Fabio Pecchia halted
Torino's run of six successive defeats with a 2-0 win at
Piacenza.
JUVENTUS FAVORITE FOR TITLE
Juventus, having pipped Lazio for the Winter Scudetto, is
now a strong favorite to win the championship.
In the past 10 seasons only two teams who led Serie A at the
halfway stage failed to go on and take the title - Sampdoria in
1991 and AC Milan last year.
But until Del Piero's second penalty in seven days, awarded
for a foul on Filippo Inzaghi in the 27th minute, Juve's
finishing was hardly the stuff of champions.
Zidane and Gianluca Zambrotta were both guilty of bad misses
when scoring looked simpler.
After the break Juventus looked like it would pay for poor
marksmanship as Perugia threatened an equalizer. But a superb
Zidane free kick in the 89th minute and Kovecevic's 14th goal of
the season in league and cup matches made sure of victory.
Lazio was left to rue a run of poor form which has produced four points from the first three matches of the New Year.
The visitors, who have never won at Reggina, were unlucky not to earn penalties either side of halftime.
First, ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Massimo Taibi appeared to bundle over Roberto Mancini. Then, Giovanni Morabito made a clumsy challenge on Simone Inzaghi.
At Rome, Totti watched in disbelief as his harmless looking
cross evaded defenders and goalkeeper and drifted in at the far
post to give Roma a second-minute lead.
Six minutes later, the home side was up two as veteran
defender Luigi Apolloni lobbed the ball into his own net.
Emiliano Salvetti did pull a goal back in the 20th but
Totti's 42nd-minute header off Vincenzo Montella's pinpoint
cross turned the second half into a formality for the home side.
Inter's recent poor form looked like it would continue when Belgian striker Luis Oliveira's third goal in three matches canceled out Croatian defender Dario Simic's third minute opener.
But substitute Moriero's superbly judged half-volley eight
minutes from time will have done much to silence doubts about
the midfielder's future at Inter.
