35th round: "Juventus" advantage continues to fade

2006-04-22 18:12 © EuroFootball.com

On Saturday, all 35 round matches took place in the Italian championship, where even ten red cards were shown. Juventus, who managed to escape from defeat against Lazio in the last minutes of the match, saw their lead over the victorious Milan reduced to three points. Victories were also celebrated by Inter and Fiorentina, while Roma failed to beat Sampdoria. Additionally, the second team, which will not play in the strongest Italian league next year, was revealed to be Lecce.

Turin's Juventus team, which has been showing very poor performance lately, hosted the Lazio team at their stadium and played a 1-1 draw with them. Juventus was saved from defeat by a goal from Davide Trezeguet in the final minutes of the match, after Lazio played in ten men from the 34th minute onwards.

Roma took the lead in the 29th minute, when Goran Pandev sent a cross to Tommaso Rocchi, who scored against Juventus goalkeeper Christian Abbiati. Just five minutes later, Lazio defender Ousmane Dabo sent the ball into the net for the second time, but the goal was disallowed due to a questionable offside. The author of the disallowed goal expressed his dissatisfaction with the referee and was sent off the field.

Therefore, from the 34th minute, the visitors from Rome had to play with ten men, and they managed to maintain their lead until the 86th minute, when the hosts equalized - David Trezeguet scored with an outside shot against Angelo Peruzzi and secured a point for his team.

In other matches, Milan defeated Messina away 3-1, despite the hosts scoring first. In these matches, four red cards were shown. Three of them were received by Messina players, one by a player of the away team.

The hosts took the lead in the sixth minute. During a penalty kick, Milan goalkeeper Dida blocked a shot by Messina player Giuseppe Sculli and he was left to score a goal. The situation of the visitors was further complicated by injuries - not only defender Alessandro Nesta and midfielder Kaka left the field due to injuries, but also the latter was replaced by Massimo Ambrosini.

However, Milan took the lead before the end of the match. In the 33rd minute, Marek Jankulovski scored a goal, and in the 43rd minute Gennaro Gattuso found the net with a shot from 30 meters. The visitors sealed the victory at the end of the match, when Italian Alberto Gilardino took advantage of a defensive error by the hosts, scoring the third goal of his team and reducing the gap from the leading Juventus to three points.

Another Milan club, Inter, crushed the relegation-fighting Reggina club 4-0 at home. Two goals were scored by Argentine Julio Ricardo Cruz, the first goal for the winners was scored by Brazilian Cesar, and Nigerian Obafemi Martins scored with a precise shot.

A crucial victory in the fight for participation in next year's Champions League was won by Fiorentina, who defeated Empoli 2-1 in the Tuscan derby at home. The hosts took the lead in the 43rd minute, when Manuel Pasqual scored his first Serie A goal. Fiorentina doubled their lead in the 58th minute, when Luis Jimenez scored his second goal, and although Empoli softened the lead in the 66th minute after Cristiano Rigano's goal, it was all the visitors could do.

The match in the Italian capital between local Roma and Sampdoria ended in a goalless draw. These draws mean that Roma allowed Fiorentina to widen the gap between them in the fight for the fourth place by three points.

Finally, the losing streak of the Livorno team was broken as they convincingly defeated Palermo 3-1 at home. The visitors' hopes of scoring at least a point were dashed by Cristiano Lucarelli's hat-trick, which meant that the Palermo club conceded six goals in their last two matches.

In the last minutes of the match, Chievo Verona managed to secure a point away against a resurgent Udinese team. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. Although Udinese took the lead in the 77th minute, with two minutes remaining in the match, the referee awarded a penalty kick to Chievo, which was converted by their top scorer this season, Sergio Pellissier.

Meanwhile, the previously successful Parma team at home failed to beat Siena, and the match also ended in a 1-1 draw. The visitors took the lead in the first half, but in the 63rd minute Parma defender Domenico Morfeo equalized with a goal.

In an incredible match between hosts Ascoli and Cagliari, a hard-fought 2-2 draw was recorded. Despite being down to nine men from the 23rd minute, thanks to two goals from David Suazo, Cagliari managed to salvage a draw.

The last team to lose their hopes of staying in the top league was Lecce, who failed to beat the already relegated Treviso at home. The hosts took the lead with a goal from Mirko Vucinic at the beginning of the match, but in the 83rd minute Reginaldo equalized, condemning the Lecce team to relegation - both teams will play in Serie B next year.

Results of the 35th round:

1 - 1

29' [0 - 1] Tommaso Rocchi

86' [1 - 1] David Trezeguet

35' Ousmane Dabo sent off ("Lazio")

1 - 3

6' [1 - 0] Giuseppe Sculli

33' [1 - 1] Marek Jankulovski

44' [1 - 2] Gennaro Gattuso

90' [1 - 3] Alberto Gilardino

45' Antonio Nocerino sent off ("Messina")

87' Giuseppe Sculli sent off ("Messina")