MILAN (AP) — Dusan Vlahovic continued his scoring streak with two goals to help Juventus move to the top of Serie A with a 3-0 win over Lecce on Sunday.
Blachowicz scored both goals in the second half and had to apologize to teammate Weston McKennie for the second goal, but he increased his tally to six goals in the past five games. Grayson Bremer scored Juve’s other goal late on.
Juventus moved one point ahead of leading Inter Milan. italian super cup final in Saudi Arabia on Monday. With Massimiliano Allegri’s side hosting Empoli the day before, the Bianconeri could reach a four-point lead before Inter’s next Serie A game, against Fiorentina next Sunday. Even.
Inter will host Juventus on February 4th.
Lecce had not won in over a month and were desperate to get out of danger, but Juventus found it more difficult than expected.
McKennie made the most of his early chances and celebrated as if he had scored an opponent’s goal when he headed home Lecce forward Nikola Krstovic on the goal line.
There was a scramble for the ball, but Juventus finally broke the deadlock in the 59th minute. After a quick counter-attack, Kenan Yildiz’s shot was saved by Vladimiro Falcone, but the ball was picked up well by Andrea Cambiaso, who crossed it back to Blachović who finished with a scuffing volley.
If Vlahovic’s first goal was more or less a coincidence, his second (9 minutes later) was a poacher’s goal.
McKennie appeared to head home from a poor angle, but Blachowicz jumped out and tucked the ball in just before it broke the line.
McKennie could only smile bitterly, and Blachowicz went to apologize to the American team before play resumed.
Juventus sealed the match with five minutes remaining when Samuel Iring Junior floated in a free kick from the right and Bremer fired a powerful header from close range that went over everyone.
perfect hat trick
Simon Djurkowski continued his impressive start to his return to Empoli, scoring his first hat-trick as the Tuscan team defeated Monza 3-0, handing manager David Nicolas a memorable debut.
Djurkowski scored less than 10 minutes into his debut in last week’s 2-1 loss against Hellas Verona. The Polish midfielder did even better on Sunday, scoring two goals in the first half – one with his right foot and one with his head – and completed a perfect hat-trick with a left-footed shot in the 73rd minute.
Jurkowski, 26, joined Empoli from Spezia on a third loan spell earlier this month.
It was Nicola’s first game as a manager at Empoli. To replace the sacked Aurelio Andreazzoli on monday.
It was Empoli’s fourth win of the season and their first in more than two months, moving them within two points of 17th place Cagliari.
relegation battle
Frosinone came from behind to beat fellow struggling Cagliari 3-1, ending a five-game losing streak.
Ibrahim Slemana’s goal gave Cagliari a six-goal lead at half-time, but Luca Mazzitelli equalized with a header in the 64th minute, and Matthias Soule curled a free-kick 11 minutes later. Caio Jorge scored the winner in stoppage time.
Frosinone are five points clear of the relegation zone, while Cagliari move just one point above the bottom three.
Genoa bounced back from a 90-second goal deficit to beat bottom club Salernitana 2-1 and stay back from crisis.
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