Juventus 1 : 0 Inter Milan - Matri dents Inter's title hopes

Posted Sunday, February 13, 2011 by PA

Juventus moved back into the top six in Serie A with a 1-0 victory against Inter Milan in the Derby d'Italia.

Alessandro Matri scored the only goal of the game in the 30th minute to take the Bianconeri above Roma and Palermo and to within three points of Inter, who now trail city rivals and league leaders AC Milan by seven points.

Samuel Eto'o provided a candidate for miss of the season as he struck the crossbar late on as Inter lost only their second Serie A game of 2011.

Giampaolo Pazzini missed the chance to put Inter ahead in the second minute when he volleyed wide while Luca Toni headed Juve's first chance off-target in the ninth minute.

Three minutes later, Juve had a strong appeal for a penalty turned down as Ivan Cordoba slid into the heel of Matri from behind, but that was forgotten about on the half-hour mark when Matri put the home team in front.

He headed in Frederik Sorensen's cross from eight yards to score his third goal in two games since joining the Bianconeri from Cagliari.

Pazzini had another chance early in the second half, but again he failed to beat Gianluigi Buffon, this time with his head.

Matri headed wide at the other end before being denied the chance to shoot by Maicon a minute later.

Both sides had chances as the game opened up with Giorgio Chiellini heading wide for Juve and Sorensen almost gifting Eto'o a goal with a soft back pass which Buffon only just managed to reach ahead of the Cameroonian.

It was not Eto'o's day, though, and he missed three glorious chances to level in the last 10 minutes.

He was first thwarted by Buffon after beating the offside trap to bring down Wesley Sneijder's lofted ball before, in the 89th minute, missing a chance which will come back to haunt him.

It seemed harder for him to miss as the ball came across the goal into his path, but from just four yards out, he blasted his shot against the crossbar.

He was wasteful once more a minute later after beating the offside trap, completely missing his kick as Juve held on to all three points.