BERGAMO, Italy (Reuters) – Juventus moved up to second in Serie A with a hard-fought 2-0 victory at Atalanta on Sunday after 19-year-old English forward Samuel Iling-Junior scored his first professional goal before Dusan Vlahovic sealed the win in injury time.
Victory moved Juve up to 66 points, two points clear of Lazio and three ahead of fourth-placed Inter Milan in a tight race for Champions League spots with four rounds left in the season. Atalanta are sixth, five points off Inter.
Atalanta created opportunities to open the scoring in the first half but failed to get their shots on target, with Giorgio Scalvini coming close with a header that beat Wojciech Szczesny in Juve’s goal but hit the far post.
Juve took the lead 10 minutes into the second half when Iling-Junior started and finished a move that cut through Atalanta’s defence, receiving Arkadiusz Milik’s pass and firing the ball in off the underside of the bar.
The goal made Iling-Junior only the third English player to score for Juve in Serie A after David Platt and William John Jordan.
As Atalanta tried to claw their way back, Vlahovic netted a second from a counter-attack with the last kick of the game. Juve will now turn their attention to their Europa League semi-final first leg against Sevilla at home on Thursday.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.