LONDON: Juventus and Borussia Dortmund warmed up for their Champions League last-16 first-leg clash on Tuesday with victories in their respective domestic leagues on Friday.

Playmaker Andrea Pirlo scored with a dipping 25-metre drive as runaway Serie A leaders Juve extended their lead at the top to 10 points with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over relegation-threatened Atalanta.

With 57 points from 24 games Juventus remain on course for a fourth successive title with second-placed AS Roma (47) visiting Hellas Verona on Sunday.

In the Bundesliga, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Marco Reus were on target again as Dortmund continued to ease relegation fears by beating bottom club VfB Stuttgart 3-2 — a third straight win sending them surging to 10th in the table.

Victory lifted last season’s runners-up to 25 points from 22 matches, four points clear of the drop zone, ahead of the rest of the weekend’s games.

Also on Friday, Substitute Bernardo Silva scored a late winner as 10-man Monaco gave themselves a boost ahead of their trip to play Arsenal in Europe’s premier club competition by beating Cote d’Azur rivals Nice 1-0.

The win provisionally lifted Monaco into fourth place on 43 points before Wednesday’s last-16 first leg against the Premier League side.

STUTTGART: Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (C) vies for the ball with VfB Stuttgart’s Serey Die (L) and Moritz Leitner during their Bundesliga match.—Reuters

PIRLO PEARLER

Atalanta took a shock lead against the run of play at the Juventus Stadium in the 25th minute when Giulio Migliaccio scored with a glancing header which went in off the post.

Juve levelled the match six minutes before half-time when a corner from the right led to a scramble inside the six-yard box and Fernando Llorente stabbed the ball over the line for his fifth goal of the season.

Pirlo then put Juve ahead in the last minute of the first half when the 35-year-old collected the ball in midfield, took one touch and then almost nonchalantly produced a vicious, swerving shot that outfoxed Marco Sportiello in the Atalanta goal.

The rest of the match remained scoreless as Juventus protected their advantage and gave themselves the ideal preparation ahead of the arrival of Dortmund after drawing two of their three previous matches.

“Today it was fundamental for us to win even if we played badly,” Pirlo told reporters after his side bounced back in style from Sunday’s 2-2 draw at struggling Cesena. “We wanted to send a message to the other teams in the championship after that really tough test in Cesena.”

NICE (France): Monaco’s Bernardo Silva shoots to score during the Ligue 1 match against Nice.—AFP

RESURGENT DORTMUND

Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund will travel to Italy with confidence restored after goals from Aubameyang, Ilkay Guendogan and Reus made it 10 goals in their last three matches.

“It was very important to go home with the three points, but we must keep working and concentrating so as not to give anything to our opponents, especially when it comes to Juve,” Aubameyang told Sky television.

Gabon international Aubameyang broke the deadlock in the 25th minute at the Mercedes-Benz-Arena, scooping the ball home for his fourth goal in three games.

Florian Klein equalised from the penalty spot in the 32ndfor Stuttgart, but Dortmund were back in front before the break when Shinji Kagawa set up Guendogan to score.

Germany international Reus added a third goal late on for the visitors as he scored for the third straight game before Georg Niedermeier netted a consolation at the death for the hosts who remain bottom on 18 points.

SILVA LINING

At the Allianz Riviera, Portuguese midfielder Silva was the hero for Monaco, coming off the bench to net the only goal of the game five minutes from time with a low shot from the edge of the box.

“Winning the derby [against Nice] is always important, it gives us confidence for the match at Arsenal,” said Silva with Monaco playing the entire second half with 10 men after Aymen Abdennour was sent off for a high tackle on Romain Genevois shortly before the interval.

Elsewhere in La Liga, forward Pablo Sarabia scored one goal and set up another to help Getafe beat Espanyol 2-1 at the Alfonso Perez Coliseum on Friday to provisionally move into 11th place.

Defeat left Espanyol in eighth place, as they wasted a chance to close in on the Europa League positions.

Published in Dawn February 22nd , 2015

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