Rome, Feb 20 (IANS) Juventus continued their upswing forms in Serie A by picking up a 2-0 away victory over Spezia, while Roma registered a slender 1-0 home win against Hellas Verona.
Juve suffered a frustrating 1-1 tie against French Ligue 1 side Nantes in the Europa League play-off midweek, so Massimiliano Allegri rotated the line-up for the second leg by throwing on Moise Kean to pair up with Dusan Vlahovic on the forward line while Mattia Perin was preferred over Wojciech Szczesny between the sticks, reports Xinhua news agency.
Vlahovic’s goal in the 17th minute was disallowed due to offside, but the Bianconeri eventually went ahead in the 32nd minute when Filip Kostic rolled across from the left and Kean cushioned it in with a first-time volley.
The home side then put together waves of attack but Perin provided a string of saves to keep the scoreline down, while at the end Angel Di Maria came off the bench to seal the win with a missile out of the box.
With the victory, Juve climbed to seventh with 32 points but are still 12 points off fourth place AC Milan.
Elsewhere, new arrival Ola Solbakken jumped at the chance in his first start for Roma as the Norwegian slid it in before the interval, earning the Giallorossi a precious victory.
Also on Sunday, Luis Alberto missed a spot-kick, but Ciro Immobile’s double still allowed Lazio to sail away with a 2-0 victory over Salernitana.
In Sunday’s other fixtures, Lecce stunned Atalanta 2-1, and Fiorentina shared the spoils with Empoli at 1-1.
–IANS
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