Serie A - Round-up: Juventus held by Atalanta

Eurosport - Sun, 17 May 22:03:00 2009

Juventus were held to a 2-2 home draw by Atalanta to leave third spot in Serie A and an automatic Champions League place far from secure.

Juventus' Vincenzo Iaquinta sits on the field after their Italian Serie A soccer match against Atalanta at the Olympic stadium in Turin
REUTERS - 0

Fourth-placed Fiorentina are just a point behind Juve with two to play after Alberto Gilardino sealed a 1-0 home win over Sampdoria.

Juve's draw, their seventh league game without a win, was played behind closed doors after fans were banned for racist chanting at last month's Turin draw with Inter Milan.

Luca Cigarini gave Atalanta the lead before Vincenzo Iaquinta (pictured) and Cristiano Zanetti put Juventus in control only for Maximiliano Pellegrino to level on the stroke of half-time.

The game got off to the worst possible start for the hosts as they went behind inside the first two minutes.

In their first attack of the game, Atalanta got the ball forward to Cristiano Doni on the edge of the area and he played the ball back to Cigrani whose long distance shot took a deflection off Nicola Legrottaglie and past Gianluigi Buffon.

The goal shocked the host who struggled to get a hold of the game and they almost fell further behind when Gyorgy Garics played in Doni, but his shot was well saved by Buffon on 15 minutes.

Iaquinta pulled Juventus back into the game on 26 minutes when he headed home a Pavel Nedved cross after good work from Carvalho Amauri.

Ten minutes later and Juventus led in spectacular fashion. A Juve corner was cleared from danger as far as Zanetti who smashed a first time volley past Andrea Consigli off the underside of the bar from 30 yards out.

But any thoughts that Juve might run away with the game were dashed when Atalanta levelled on the stroke of half-time.

Gianvito Plasmati flicked on a corner at the near post and Pellegrino was on hand to head home from close range.

Despite having little to play for Atalanta looked more likely to get the winner in the second half, and Plasmati saw his header come back off the underside of the crossbar just after the break.

Cigarini hit the crossbar again for Atalanta with a long range effort that had Buffon beaten.

Claudio Ranieri brought Alessandro Del Piero on after an hour and although he made a difference to Juve going forward he was unable to unlock the Atalanta defence.

In the final minute Consigli was called upon to make a fine double save to deny Juventus. First he stopped an Iaquinta header and then Del Piero's rebound was also saved.

Juve travel to Siena next week and will hope to get back to winning ways to and hold onto the third Champions League spot.

The only ray of light for Juve was fifth-placed Genoa's 2-2 home draw with Chievo, which means the Turin club will finish at least fourth this term because they are six points above Genoa and have a better head-to-head record.

Striker Diego Milito, heavily tipped to shortly join newly-crowned champions Inter, made it 1-1 for Genoa with a 58th minute penalty but Sergio Pellissier struck for Chievo five minutes from time to seal a point.

Genoa are five behind Fiorentina with two games left and look destined for the Europa League next term.

Almost-doomed Lecce slipped five adrift of safety at the bottom after Sergio Volpi's stoppage-time goal gave Bologna a 2-1 win over coach Giuseppe Papadopulo's former side.

Bologna remain in the relegation zone, though, after fourth-bottom Torino won 2-1 at Napoli to stay a point ahead.

Second-bottom Reggina are four below Torino following a 2-1 victory over Cagliari.

James Andrew, Eurosport / Reuters

Comment 1 - 5 of 5

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  1. Racism is a problem but there is a lot of over-reacting­ too.

    From Half A Brain, on Mon 18 May 5:49AM
  2. HOO GAVS A S HAT?

    From donneysbeck, on Sun 17 May 10:11PM
  3. how many times do we hear about racist issues coming­ from our backward european counterparts? I mean­ honestly. shoot some of them just to let them know it­ aint acceptable.

    From Tom, on Sun 17 May 9:53PM
  4. lol...really? I found a place that many players are­ hoo king up with h ot mo dels, seems the club called:­ __Tallloving Co M , do you hear this before?

    From jessiezhang4love, on Sun 17 May 7:00PM
  5. haha first to comment bawww my @#$%, rate me!

    From matty_is_fatty, on Sun 17 May 5:37PM
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