Juventus continue strong Serie A start

Alessandro Matri celebrates after scoring the decisive goal of the game against Siena [EPA]

Juventus won 1-0 at Siena on Sunday to extend their perfect start and reclaim the Serie A lead.

Alessandro Matri scored in the 54th minute to finish off a swift counterattack for the Turin powerhouse, who were completely remodelled after finishing seventh last season and missing out on Europe.

New Juventus coach Antonio Conte led Siena back into the top division last season, and Juve took advantage of one of their few scoring chances against his former club.

All four Juve forwards were involved in the goal. Simone Pepe launched a long forward pass to Emanuele Giaccherini, who gave the ball to Mirko Vucinic, who in turn found Matri unmarked inside the area.

Italian Results

Sunday September 18  Atalanta 1-0 Palermo  Bologna 0-2 Lecce  Catania 1-0 Cesena  Lazio 1-2 Genoa  Parma 2-1 Chievo  Siena 0-1 Juventus  Udinese 2-0 Fiorentina   Napoli 3-1 AC Milan

“It certainly wasn’t an easy match for us,” Conte said.

“Siena was well placed on the pitch and we did well to control the match.”

Udinese also remained perfect after a 2-0 win over Fiorentina with goals from Antonio Di Natale and Mauricio Isla, while Fiorentina lost forward Alberto Gilardino to what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

Juventus, Udinese and Cagliari – who beat newly promoted Novara 2-1 on Saturday – have six points each but Juventus has the edge over Udinese on goals scored.

Genoa and Catania also won and are next in the table with four points each.

Rodrigo Palacio scored once and set up another goal from Juraj Kucka as Genoa rallied to beat Lazio 2-1 with two second-half goals.

Giuseppe Sculli had given Lazio the lead after redirecting a cross from Miroslav Klose in the 11th.

In Sicily, Catania beat Cesena 1-0 with a penalty from Maxi Lopez just before halftime.

Also, Sebastian Giovinco scored an injury-time winner to give Parma a 2-1 victory over Chievo Verona. Giovinco had given Parma the lead in the 24th and former Parma forward Alberto Paloschi equalised for Chievo Verona in the 79th.

Giovinco also scored Parma’s only goal in a 4-1 loss to Juventus last weekend and the 1.64-meter forward leads the league scoring chart with three goals. However, Giovinco will miss Parma’s next match at Fiorentina after picking up a second yellow card in the waning seconds.

Lecce won 2-0 at Bologna with goals from a pair of Uruguayan midfielders, Guillermo Giacomazzi and Carlos Grossmuller.

Finding motivation from their six-point match-fixing penalty, Atalanta remained unbeaten with a 1-0 win over Palermo in a game that was suspended for more than 30 minutes in the second half due to a torrential rainstorm.

Atalanta forward German Denis scored with an angled shot inside the near post in the 34th minute.

Atalanta, who were penalised six points for their role in a betting and match-fixing scandal, are minus two points after drawing 2-2 at Genoa in their opener last week.