Juventus And AC Milan Both Win Their Serie A Rescheduled Games
Juventus won 2-0 in their week 18 rescheduled game against modest Crotone (19th) as Croatian Mario Mandzukic scored in the 60th minute off a deflection from goalkeeper Alex Cordaz. Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain doubled the lead in the 74th minute in a one-on-one battle against Cordaz after a pass from Venezuelan Tomás Rincón.
With their victory the Turinese further extended their Serie A lead. With the three points in the bag, Juventus now has 57 points, seven more than second place AS Roma, and a nine point lead on third place Napoli.
The wide margin allows the ‘bianconeri’ to dream with another “scudetto”. It’s undeniable now that Juventus’ goal of achieving a sixth consecutive title in the Italian league seems more as a matter of time now as no team has risen up to the challenge of keeping pace with them.
Give Crotone credit though, the humble team displayed a lot more resistance than many anticipated, but in the end was overwhelmed by the greater offensive talents of the Juventus players.
Since their defeat at Fiorentina on 15 January, Juventus have earned four straight victories in the Italian league. Their overall unbeaten run is now at five as they also won a Coppa Italia quarterfinal game against AC Milan by a score of 2-1.
Higuain, meanwhile, now has 16 goals in Serie A, the same as Belgian Dries Mertens (Napoli) and now only one goal behind the scoring leader, Bosnian Edin Dzeko of AS Roma.
Juventus will now play two Serie A games in the next eight days (at Cagliari and at home against Palermo) before facing Porto in the Champions League round of 16 on February 22.
A.C Milan vs Bologna
Milan also travelled to play its week 18 rescheduled game. The “Rossoneri” won 1-0 in Bologna and snapped a three game losing streak on the road. Croatian Mario Pasalic scored in the 89th minute for the the visitors, who won despite playing much of the second half with nine men after Gabriel Paletta and Slovakian Juraj Kucka were sent off.
A.C Milan now will play two tough opponents within the next 10 days as they will visit fourth place Lazio on February 13 and host sixth place Fiorentina on February 19.