Rome, Sep 1 (IANS) Midfielder Arturo Vidal scored a brace as Serie A champions Juventus thrashed 10-man Lazio 4-1 at home.
Antonio Conte’s men went ahead in the 14th minute Saturday when Vidal picked up a deft pass from Paul Pogba and poked it into the goal. The Chilean international, assisted by an accurate pass from Leonardo Bonucci, beat Lazio’s offside trap to double the home side’s lead, reports Xinhua.
Lazio replied less than a minute later as Gianluigi Buffon could not hold on to Hernanes’ powerful shot and Miroslav Klose slid in to bury the rebound but Mirko Vucinic eventually re-established the two-goal advantage four minutes after the break as he latched on to another long pass from Bonucci and slotted home.
The visitor’s hopes were completely shattered in the 63rd minute when midfielder Hernanes got the marching order. Then Carlos Tevez wrapped up the win for Juventus with a shot in the 78th minute.
Juventus head coach Conte was happy with his side’s form.
“Winning again and putting another four goals past Lazio is a sign of our growing form, both as a collective and as individuals. We are shaking off the heavy workload of pre-season training and have won all three of our official matches. Today we were facing a tough opponent who always made us suffer. It’s a victory that gives us confidence but we must never let our concentration slip,” he said.
Elsewhere, Napoli, thanks to Marek Hamsik’s two goals, beat Chievo 4-2 away from home to remain top in the embryonic Serie A table.
Hamsik opened the scoring (13th minute) as Lorenzo Insigne cut in from the left and laid the ball off for him to net easily. Eleven minutes later Alberto Paloschi pulled it level for Chievo. Perparim Hetemaj brought down a lofted ball on the right flank before volleying a low cross into the area and Alberto Paloschi diverted the ball past Pepe Reina.
Chievo had not been level for five minutes when Gonzalo Higuain surged into the left-hand side of the hosts’ penalty area and squared for his former Real Madrid teammate Jose Callejon to tap into an empty net but Paloschi hit back again before half-time.
After the break, however, Chievo would not prove to so resilient as two goals in the space of six minutes settled the match.
Hamsik grabbed his second of the game (64th), a goal which saw him become the first player to score twice in each of the first two Serie A matches of the season since Alessandro Del Piero managed it in 2002-03, while Higuain rounded off the win soon after.
