Rossi hits hat-trick to sink Juve

Football | Italy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giuseppe Rossi continued his remarkable comeback with a 15-minute hat-trick as Fiorentina recovered from two goals down to defeat previously unbeaten title-holders Juventus 4-2 in Serie A on Sunday.
The US-born Italy striker, back this season after successive knee injuries effectively side-lined him for two years, took his tally to eight goals in as many games while Juventus coach Antonio Conte was left visibly seething by his team's collapse.
There was plenty of other drama with a total of eight penalties being awarded in Sunday afternoon's six games and a first top-flight win for Serie A debutants Sassuolo who beat Bologna 2-1.
Sampdoria converted two penalties, the second in the sixth minute of stoppage time, for a 2-1 win at Livorno while Jorginho scored two penalties for Hellas Verona as they came from behind to beat Parma 3-2.
"We suffered a 10-minute nightmare," Conte told reporters. "I thought it was all over bar the shouting. We dominated the game for long periods and it all went down the drain in 10 minutes."


Juventus had dropped only two points all season in the league and appeared to be cruising when a controversial Carlos Tevez penalty and a Paul Pogba goal gave them a 2-0 halftime lead.
Tevez collapsed dramatically after minimal contact from Gonzalo Rodriguez before dusting himself down to fire home a penalty in the 37th minute.
Three minutes later, Fiorentina's Juan Cuadrado slid in and sent an attempted clearance looping across the face of his own goal, where it landed at the feet of Pogba who tapped in the ball.
Fiorentina's fightback began with another controversial penalty in the 66th minute when Matias Fernandez was bundled over and Rossi scored from the spot.

Juventus then collapsed, conceding three goals in five minutes. Rossi levelled in the 76th minute when he collected the ball on the edge of the area, beat two defenders and fired past Gianluigi Buffon.
Two minutes after that, the Juventus defence left Joaquin Sanchez all alone and the Spaniard swept home the equaliser. Then Colombian international Cuadrado led a counter-attack and slipped the ball to Rossi who drove home his third.
Juventus were left in third place with 19 points, behind Napoli on goal difference and five points adrift of Roma. Fiorentina are fifth with 15.