Juve win on Conte’s return

Italian champions celebrate coach Antonio Conte’s return from four-month ban with a win, beating Palermo in Serie A.

Alberto Conte
It was Conte’s first match back after serving a four-month ban for failing to report match-fixing as coach of Siena [EPA]

Juventus coach Antonio Conte enjoyed a winning return to the touchline on Sunday as the Serie A leaders celebrated the end of his four-month ban with a 1-0 victory at Palermo.

Stephan Lichtsteiner scored early in the second half of a game in which both teams struggled on a difficult pitch that cut up badly following a hailstorm at half-time.

AC Milan continued their revival with a third league victory in a row, coming from behind to win 4-2 at Torino with Robinho, Antonio Nocerino, Giampaolo Pazzini and Stephan El Shaaraway scoring the goals.

Pescara beat Genoa 2-0 in a clash of two teams stuck in the relegation zone and two goals from Gonzalo Bergessio gave Catania their first away win of the season, 3-1 at Siena.

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Results & fixtures

Saturday 8 December

Atalanta 2-1 Parma
Roma 4-2 Fiorentina

Sunday 9 December

Cagliari 0-2 Chievo
Palermo 0-1 Juventus
Pescara 2-0 Genoa
Siena 1-3 Catania
Torino 2-4 AC Milan
Inter Milan 2-1 Napoli

Monday 10 December

Sampdoria v Udinese
Bologna v Lazio

Juve’s win, their 12th in 16 league games, took them on to 38 points and ensured they will finish the weekend top of the table.

Conte was initially banned for 10 months in August for failing to report a match-fixing attempt when he was coach at Siena in Serie B, but his suspension was later reduced to four months on appeal.

Palermo playmaker Fabrizio Miccoli had a first-half goal disallowed for offside before Switzerland fullback Lichtsteiner settled the match following a clever backheel by Mirko Vucinic five minutes after the re-start.

The hosts, who are 17th, had Michel Morganella sent off for a second bookable offence in the 75th minute.

Milan lost midfielder Nigel de Jong to injury in the 21st minute and Torino went ahead seven minutes later when Antonio Nocerino’s dreadful backpass was intercepted by Mario Santana, who ran into the box and rounded Marco Amelia to score.

Brazilian forward Robinho levelled from a tight angle five minutes before half-time and Nocerino made amends for his blunder after the interval when he headed in a rebound after Jean-Francois Gillet parried the ball into his path from El Shaaraway’s cross.

Pazzini scored the third, despite Torino claims he had committed a foul in the process, and El Shaaraway tapped in from close range after a mistake by Gillet for his 13th goal of the season.

Rolando Bianchi headed one back for Torino as Milan climbed to seventh with 24 points.

Slovakia midfielder Vladimir Weiss set up both Pescara goals in the second half, the first for Elvis Abbruscato and the second for Ante Vukusic.

Pescara moved up to 18th with 14 points, two more than their opponents who are 19th in the 20-team table.

In another relegation battle, Chievo scored twice in the last quarter of the match to win 2-0 at Cagliari despite being on the back foot for most of the game. Alberto Paloschi headed Chievo in front and Cyril Thereau curled a free kick into the top corner for the second.

Source: Reuters