from AFP.
Ranieri unhappy despite Del Piero firing Juve to second spot
1 hour ago
ROME (AFP) — Alessandro Del Piero scored a brace of second-half breakaway goals to fire Juventus up to second place in Serie A with a 3-2 win over Lazio at the Stadio Olympico here on Saturday.
Juve leapfrogged Roma, for a day at least, and closed the gap on champions Inter Milan to just five points with this clinical away display.
Lazio should have won but Del Piero's goals and a brilliant performance from goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon won the match for Juve.
Despite the victory, Juve coach Caudio Ranieri was far from happy.
"We've taken three steps forward because we have won three points, but four backwards because Lazio broke down our defence more than all the other teams put together," Ranieri told Sky Sport.
"We didn't play well. We're lucky because tonight we had Buffon and Del Piero."
Del Piero was just happy the team had held on for the win.
"We suffered a lot at the end of the match but we proved good enough to defend our lead," he said.
Despite their lofty position, Del Piero is not getting carried away with a title challenge.
"We're more interested in guarding against those behind us than trying to catch those in front," added the veteran star.
The hosts should have taken the lead after 18 minutes but following a mistake in the Juventus defence, Stefano Mauri blazed over the bar from six yards.
Lazio were made to pay just before the half-hour mark when Serie A top scorer David Trezeguet put Juve in front.
The France forward, currently out of favour with national coach Raymond Domenech, knew little about his goal but it was nonetheless credited to him.
A poked shot from Bosnia midfielder Hassan Salihamidzic was going wide but flicked off Trezeguet's boot and looped up into the top corner.
The lead lasted only seven minutes before Lazio produced the move of the match, with Tommaso Rocchi's flicked header releasing Massimo Mutarelli to cross for Serbian forward Goran Pandev to head home at the far post.
Juve survived a penalty scare late in the first period when Salihamidzic appeared to bring down Alexsandar Kolarov and three minutes after the break they were back in front.
Del Piero beat the offside trap and latched onto a long ball before beating Marco Ballotta in the Lazio goal with a clinical left-foot finish.
Trezeguet had a chance to make the game safe just after the hour mark when he found himself clean through from substitute Cardoso Tiago's through ball but he fired his shot straight at Ballotta.
Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon earned his keep on 65 minutes with a brilliant one-handed save to deny Rocchi when an equaliser looked certain.
That save proved crucial five minutes later when Del Piero sealed the victory with an identical goal to his first effort.
Pandev headed home a consolation goal deep into injury time from Rocchi's near post cross.
Earlier, Udinese's Champions League hopes were dealt a blow in Sicily as the north-eastern outfit lost 2-0 at Catania.
Striker Giuseppe Mascara doubled his tally for the season, scoring at both ends of the match to move Catania up to eighth, until Sunday at least.
For Udinese, though, it was a huge disappointment following their brilliant start to the season that sees them sit fourth in the table.