29.04.2015 23:11 h

Tevez double takes Juventus to brink of title

Juventus put one hand on the Serie A title on Wednesday after a brace from Carlos Tevez saw the champions come back from a goal down to win an entertaining match with Fiorentina 3-2.

Victory moved them to within a point of their fourth straight league crown on an incident-packed night that saw 27 goals scored in eight matches.

Massimiliano Allegri's leaders could have sealed the title had second-placed Lazio failed to beat Parma, but Stefano Pioli's side struck three times through Marco Parolo, Miroslav Klose and Antonio Candreva in six blistering first half minutes and added a fourth through Balde Keita with nine minutes to go to both keep the gap between themselves and Juve at 14 points with five to play and relegate bankrupt Parma.

Juve now need just a draw at Sampdoria on Saturday night to win the league before Tuesday night's Champions League semi-final clash with Real Madrid in Turin, although they struggled at times against Fiorentina and could consider themselves fortunate to draw level after Andrea Pirlo's clumsy 31st-minute trip on Joaquin allowed Gonzalo Rodriguez to give Vincenzo Montella's side a shock lead from the penalty spot.

Only two minutes after going behind referee Luca Banti gave a free-kick for what appeared to be a non-existent foul on Stefano Sturaro by Fiorentina goalkeeper Neto, who was nonetheless booked.

Pirlo took the opportunity to redeem himself for his earlier error by clipping in a perfect cross into the area, from which Fernando Llorente headed in the equaliser.

They took the lead right on the stroke of half-time when Serie A top scorer Tevez met Patrice Evra's drilled cross from the left wing with a perfectly timed looping header back across Neto.

Fiorentina came out fighting at the start of the second half and should have levelled the scores when Joaquin was brought down in the box again in the 65th minute, this time by Giorgio Chiellini, only for Rodriguez to smash his penalty well wide.

Tevez punished the visitors five minutes later when he raced on to Claudio Marchisio's through ball and smashed his 20th goal of the season across Neto. Illicic curled home a wonderful free-kick in the last minute, but it was too little too late.

Lazio's win saw them keep second place and their one-point lead on local rivals Roma, who walloped Sassuolo 3-0 through Seydou Doumbia's first Serie A goal, a wonderful individual strike from Alessandro Florenzi and Miralem Pjanic's fifth goal of the season, which he crashed home after fine work from Gervinho on the right.

Rudi Garcia's side are now five points ahead of fourth-placed Napoli, who take on Empoli on Thursday evening, in the battle for a Champions League spot next season.

Genoa hammered sorry AC Milan 3-1 to move one point above Fiorentina and into sixth place.

Torino and Sampdoria failed to capitalise, with the pair drawing 2-2 at Palermo and 1-1 at home with Verona respectively.

Mauricio Pinilla gave Atalanta's Serie A survival hopes a huge boost by scoring a brace that included a beautiful and late bicycle kick that snatched a 2-2 draw for his side at Cesena that leaves his side six points above third-from-bottom Cagliari, who lost 1-0 at Chievo.