Thaindian News

Rome, Jan 23 (IANS) AC Milan kept up their chase of Juventus at the top of Italian Serie A football with a 3-0 win at Novara.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a brace as AC Milan recovered from last week’s derby defeat against Inter.

For nearly an hour Milan suffered similar frustrations to last week, when they slipped to a 1-0 defeat, until Ibrahimovic stood out to break the deadlock in the 57th minute Sunday.

Robinho doubled the lead in the 73rd minute before Ibrahimovic grabbed his second in the last minute.

With the win, the defending champions still trailed Juventus by only one point. And the Rossoneri head coach Massimiliano Allegri believed the Serie A this season would probably turn out to be a two-horse race.

“We were forced to get the three points today in order to reach 40 points, which was the target we had set ourselves despite a tough start to the campaign,” Allegri was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

“Juventus are for the moment keeping up an impressive pace and are still unbeaten. We are the favorites for the Scudetto along with Juventus, even if one shouldn’t forget teams doing well like Udinese, Roma and Inter,” he said.

Udinese also proved their title credentials with a 2-1 win over Catania at the Stadio Friuli.

Pablo Armero put the hosts in front in the 20th minute and their top scorer Antonio Di Natale got his name on the scoresheet once again to make it 2-0 in the 53rd minute. Francesco Lodi grabbed a consolation for Catania in the fifth minute of stoppage time from the penalty spot.

Goran Pandev scored a late equaliser as Napoli rescued a point at Siena with a 1-1 draw.

Emanuele Calaio had put the hosts ahead in the 67th minute and Siena goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo then kept out substitute Ezequiel Lavezzi’s penalty kick after he was brought down inside the area by Siena’s Gaetano D’Agostino.

Fabrizio Miccoli inspired Palermo to a first win in seven games, 5-3 over Genoa, to halt their slide down the table.

David Di Michele struck at the death as hosts Lecce came from two goals down to claim a deserved point, drawing 2-2 against Chievo.

The early game was the most disappointing as Bologna and Parma shared the spoils in a lifeless 0-0 Emilia-Romagna derby at the Stadio Dall’Ara.