MILAN: Fabio Quagliarella scored twice in five minutes to send defending champion Juventus to a 2-0 victory over Chievo Verona in Serie A on Saturday night.
Quagliarella was again the star for Juventus, after rescuing the Bianconeri with a last-minute equalizer against Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Italy international broke the deadlock with a stunning strike shortly after an hour and doubled his tally with another impressive goal five minutes later as Juventus maintained its perfect start to the season.
Earlier in the evening, Jaime Valdes atoned for his earlier penalty miss with a stoppage-time spot kick to rescue a 1-1 draw for 10-man Parma at home to Fiorentina.
Juve dominated and would have been several goals up before Quagliarella’s double had it not been for the heroics of Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino.
Sorrentino’s counterpart, Gianluigi Buffon, was reduced to the roll of spectator as Juventus cruised to a 43rd game unbeaten in Serie A.
Quagliarella went off 10 minutes from time to a standing ovation. He was replaced by Nicklas Bendtner, with the on-loan Arsenal striker making his Juventus debut.
“It’s certainly one of the best weeks in my career,” Quagliarella said. “Today I had to prove I was ready and I believe I did that.
“Obviously that standing ovation made me happy and I thank the fans for that.” It is the first time in five encounters Juventus has managed to beat Chievo. It was the third defeat on the trot for Chievo.
“Juve showed it is stronger in the 90 minutes,” Chievo coach Domenico Di Carlo said. “We contained them fairly well in the first half, but then Quagliarella scored twice. Compliments to him, they pushed more and they deserved it. Juve kept us down but we could have done more.
“Sorrentino did very well, today he showed his strength with a great display. It’s the squad that needs to find intensity and speed again. If we find that then we can save ourselves quickly. The fixture list has been hard and we knew that, this group knows how to start again, however, and to overcome difficulties.” Juve broke the deadlock with a fantastic scissor kick from Quagliarella. Sorrentino got a hand to it with what looked like another fantastic save but could turn it only onto his post and in.
Quagliarella doubled his tally when he controlled the ball on the edge of the area before skipping past Chievo defender Dario Dainelli and firing over Sorrentino and into the far corner.
Elsewhere, Parma had won its previous six games at home but it seemed as if that run was going to be broken when, in the 20th minute, Facundo Roncaglia collected the ball 25 meters from goal and controlled it well before unleashing an unstoppable effort into the top left corner for the Argentine defender’s first goal in Italy.
Roncaglia almost went from hero to villain when he needlessly brought down Pabon, who had his back to goal on the far right of the area. However, Fiorentina goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano got down smartly to his left to save Valdes’ weak penalty and spare his defender’s blushes.
Fiorentina looked set to seal the match when Aleandro Rosi hauled down Mattia Cassani when he was meters away from goal. Rosi was sent off in that incident.
However, Serie A top goal-scorer Stevan Jovetic, who had scored in all three of Fiorentina’s league matches this season, hit his penalty straight at Parma goalkeeper Antonio Mirante.
Luca Toni gave away the third penalty of the day in stoppage time with a handball and Valdes made no mistake at the second time of asking.