Injury-hit Juventus stunned Milan 2-1 at the San Siro last night to finally ignite their scudetto hopes.
Fabio Quagliarella and Alessandro Del Piero scored the goals that took Juve up to fourth in Serie A, just two points behind Milan and three off champions Inter, who won 1-0 at Genoa on Friday, before Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late consolation.
Juve’s win came amid a crippling injury crisis, made even worse as Juve lost Giorgio Chiellini in the warm-up and Paolo de Ceglie and Jorge Martinez during the game.
They ended it with right winger Simone Pepe playing at left back and defensive midfielder Momo Sissoko at right midfield.
Del Piero’s goal was his 179th for Juventus and means he becomes their record goalscorer, with one more than Giampiero Boniperti.
It was all Juve throughout the first half with Del Piero shooting straight at Christian Abbiati when he should have squared to Quagliarella.
But the on-loan Napoli player opened the scoring on 24 minutes when he met a deep De Ceglie cross with a towering header into the top corner.
Milan finally threatened in stoppage time as a great cross from Pato into the area picked out Ibrahimovic but the Swede’s header was weak and Marco Storari made an easy save.
Ibrahimovic then took down a cross from Pirlo on his chest before firing over.
Five minutes into the second period the Swede had another chance, teed up by Ghana midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng but Felipe Melo headed his shot clear.
But despite those chances it was Juventus who struck again after Pepe crossed into the box and Sissoko beat Luca Antonini to the ball bringing it down on his chest before it got stuck in his feet.
The chance seemed to have gone begging after the Mali midfielder swiped at thin air and fell over, but he got back up, prodded the ball back to Del Piero and he fired through a crowd of defenders to score.
Eight minutes from time Ibrahimovic met Antonini’s cross from seven yards to head past Storari.
Earlier in the day, Roma went seventh after a 2-0 success against Lecce in the capital saw them earn a third home win in a row.
Argentina centre-back Nicolas Burdisso and Montenegro forward Mirko Vucinic scored the goals but both teams finished with 10 men after the dismissals of Francesco Totti and Ruben Olivera.
Roma were left counting the cost of Totti’s dismissal as he will now miss next week’s Rome derby against leaders Lazio.
Roma 2
Burdisso 62; Vucinic 76;
Lecce 0
HT: 0-0. Att: 28,000.
Red cards: Totti (R) 77; Olivera (L) 77.
Milan 1
Ibrahimovic 82;
Juventus 2
Quagliarella 24; Del Piero 65;
HT: 0-1. Att: 55,000
Playing today
(kick-offs 15.00 unless stated)
Bari vs Udinese
Brescia vs Napoli
Catania vs Fiorentina - 20.45
Cagliari vs Bologna
Cesena vs Sampdoria
Palermo vs Lazio - 12.30
Parma vs Chievo
Next Fixtures
Saturday: 18.00 Bologna vs Lecce. 20.45 Inter vs Brescia.
Sunday: 12.30 Fiorentina vs Chievo. 15.00 Bari vs Milan; Juventus vs Cesena; Lazio vs Roma; Napoli vs Parma; Sampdoria vs Catania; Udinese vs Cagliari. 20.45 Palermo vs Genoa.