Fabio Quagliarella’s hat-trick helped Juventus crush Pescara 6-1 last night to bounce back superbly from losing their unbeaten record to arch-rivals Inter last week.
Goals from Arturo Vidal, Sebastian Giovinco and Kwadwo Asamoah added to the margin of victory for the champions who climbed to 31 points at the top of Serie A, four ahead of Inter who face a tricky match at Atalanta tonight.
Pescara scored their only goal on 25 minutes when Emmanuel Cascione guided a header past Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
“It feels good, it’s my first ever hat-trick, that’s always a good thing, but the important thing was to win, we did really well,” Quagliarella told reporters.
“Inter is in the past, after a defeat you have to come back even stronger.
“We have to continue to work like we always have done, work on the errors we committed against Inter and now I think we’ve got back into our stride.”
In yesterday’s earlier game, Cagliari and Catania played out an uneventful 0-0 draw in Serie A amid more stadium controversy for the Sardinian side.
They thought they would be playing in front of a newly-completely open Is Arenas but an emergency meeting among local authorities led to the stadium’s main stand being closed.
The club, however, opened access to the stand for reporters, prompting fears that they might suffer further sanctions from the Serie A or the Italian football federation (FIGC) having been handed a 3-0 defeat by the league for their postponed match against Roma.
On the pitch it was Cagliari who came closest to snatching the three points. Marco Sau rounded Mariano Andujar only for the Catania goalkeeper to save the resulting shot. From the ensuing corner, Sau’s header was somehow kept out by the keeper.
Sau could only produce an air shot when presented with a chance only a minute into the second half and that was as good as it got for either side.
Serie A
Cagliari 0
Catania 0
Att: 13,000.
Pescara 1
Cascione 25;
Juventus 6
Vidal 9; Quagliarella 25, 45, 53; Asamoah 30; Giovinco 38;
HT: 1-5. Att: 22,000.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Juventus | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 29 | 9 | 31 |
| Inter | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 22 | 10 | 27 |
| Napoli | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 7 | 23 |
| Fiorentina | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 8 | 21 |
| Lazio | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 15 | 19 |
| Roma | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 26 | 20 | 17 |
| Catania | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 15 | 16 | 16 |
| Parma | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 16 | 15 |
| Atalanta (-2) | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 15 |
| Cagliari | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 17 | 15 |
| Milan | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 17 | 13 | 14 |
| Udinese | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 16 | 14 |
| Torino (-1) | 11 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 10 | 11 |
| Pescara | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 23 | 11 |
| Sampdoria (-1) | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 13 | 16 | 10 |
| Chievo | 11 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 21 | 10 |
| Genoa | 11 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 9 |
| Bologna | 11 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 8 |
| Palermo | 11 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 17 | 8 |
| Siena (-6) | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 14 | 6 |
Playing today – 15.00
Atalanta vs Inter - 20.45
Milan vs Fiorentina
Chievo vs Udinese
Genoa vs Napoli
Lazio vs Roma
Palermo vs Sampdoria - 12.30
Parma vs Siena
Torino vs Bologna
Top scorers
8 goals: El Shaarawy (Milan).
7 goals: Milito (Inter), Cavani (Napoli), Di Natale (Udinese), Lamela (Roma).
6 goals: Klose (Lazio), Jovetic (Fiorentina), Osvaldo (Roma), Quagliarella (Juve).
Next fixtures
Saturday: 18.00 Juventus vs Lazio. 20.45 Napoli vs Milan.
Sunday: 15.00 Bologna vs Palermo; Catania vs Chievo; Fiorentina vs Atalanta; Inter vs Cagliari; Siena vs Pescara; Udinese vs Parma. 20.45 Sampdoria vs Genoa.
Monday, Nov. 19: 20.45 Roma vs Torino.
Serie B
Ascoli 1 - Livorno 4
Cesena 1 - Brescia 3
Cittadella 2 - Vicenza 2
Crotone 3 - Empoli 2
Juve Stabia 2 - Lanciano 1
Pro Vercelli 1 - Modena 2
Sassuolo 2 - Novara 0
Ternana 0 - Verona 2
Varese 3 - Padova 0
Bari vs Reggina - tomorrow, 20.45
Standings: Sassuolo 34; Verona 31; Livorno 29; Modena, Brescia, Juve Stabia, Cittadella 21; Varese 20; Padova, Spezia (-2) 19; Ternana 16; Ascoli (-1), Empoli (-1) 15; Crotone 14; Vicenza, Cesena 13; Bari (-7), Lanciano 12; Pro Vercelli 11; Novara (-4), Reggina (-3) 10; Grosseto (-6) 7.