Juventus fought back from a goal down to beat Atalanta BC 2-1 at home this evening and stretch their lead at the top of Serie A to 10 points.
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Fernando Llorente had the chance to put the home side ahead early on, but skewed his shot wide at the near post from Andrea Pirlo's corner.
The duo combined once more later on, but the Spanish forward dragged a 20-yard shot wide after being released by the veteran midfielder's threaded pass behind the Atalanta defence.
Midway through the half, Daniele Baselli blasted the ball at Gianluigi Buffon from 12 yards after Urby Emanuelson's jinking run through the home defence, but from the resulting corner Atalanta took a shock lead as Giulio Migliaccio's glancing header clipped the inside of the far post and rolled across the line.
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Roberto Pereyra and Martin Cacares were both denied by fine Marco Sportiello saves as Juve poured forward in search of a leveller, but the goalkeeper was helpless to prevent Llorente from equalising after the forward reacted quickest in a goalmouth scramble to level the scores.
The goal gave the hosts confidence and with the final kick of the half Pirlo slammed an unerring 30-yard strike into top corner to give Juve the lead for the first time in the game.
Ten minutes into the second half, Sportiello produced a save from point-blank range to deny Paul Pogba from extending Juve's lead with a free header at far post.
Alvaro Morata almost wrapped up the victory with a lung-bursting run down the left flank, but he was denied by a last-ditch sliding tackle by Andrea Masiello.
With two minutes remaining, Migliaccio flicked a header narrowly wide as Juventus edged to an important victory.
Kristian Johnson
