TURIN: Raising his tally to six goals in seven matches since arriving on loan from Chelsea, Mohamed Salah scored twice and Fiorentina won 2-1 at Juventus in the opening leg of the Italian Cup semi-finals on Thursday.

Juventus suffered their first loss at home since falling to Bayern Munich nearly two years ago.

Salah scored his first 11 minutes in when he sprinted past three defenders and dribbled for 60 yards before launching in a shot from inside the area.

After Fernando Llorente equalised for the Serie A leaders with a header in the 24th, Salah scored the winner in the second half with an angled shot inside the area.

Since transferring last month, Salah has three goals in Serie A, one in the Europa League, and two in Italian Cup play. That’s a drastic improvement from his year at Chelsea, when the 22-year-old Egypt international scored only twice in 19 appearances.

Salah also scored the decisive goal in Fiorentina’s 1-0 win at Inter Milan last weekend, the club’s first victory over the Nerazzurri at the San Siro in 15 years.

Chelsea are paying Salah’s salary at Fiorentina until the end of the season, when the Italian side can take him on loan for another season or buy him outright for 20 million euros ($22 million).

Fiorentina stretched their unbeaten run in all competitions to 15 matches.

Fiorentina, who lost last season’s final to Napoli, are seeking their seventh Italian Cup. Juventus share the record of nine Italian Cups with Roma but haven’t won the trophy in 20 years.

BEAUVUE SCORES WINNER

LORIENT (France): Claudio Beauvue’s free-kick in added time ensured French Cup holders Guingamp’s progression to the semi-finals with a scrappy 2-1 win over fourth-tier side Concarneau on Thursday.

Guingamp became the third topflight team to advance to the last four after Paris Saint-Germain and Saint-Etienne.

Christophe Mandanne pounced from close range for the visitors after three minutes, but Concarneau dominated and levelled when Christophe Gourmelon was fortunate to see his lob land under the bar in the 22nd.

The teams looked set for extra time until Beauvue, one of the revelations in France this season, sealed victory with a superb 30-metre effort which lodged in the inside netting.

Auxerre defeated fellow second-tier side Brest 4-2 in a penalty shootout in the other quarter-final.—AP

Published in Dawn March 7th , 2015

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