Juve turns back Catania to go top

Turin, Italy – Juventus returned to the Serie A summit on 1 win over Catania at home.

Juve had played to a pair of 0-0 draws in its last two matches and fell behind inside of four minutes as Pablo Barrientos placed a shot inside the far post with his left foot that gave goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon no chance.

But the Old Lady responded well with Andrea Pirlo netting his first Serie A goal of the campaign from a free kick as he curled the ball past the wall and inside the post from 20 yards.

Both sides struck the woodwork in the span of a minute as Juve's Fabio Quagliarella hit the crossbar before Gonzalo Bergessio of Catania saw his effort tipped off the post by Buffon.

Catania had to play the final 25 minutes of the contest with 10 men after Marco Motta was sent off, and it took Juve nine minutes to capitalize with Pirlo's free kick finding Giorgio Chiellini at the back post for the defender to nod the ball home.

The win was wrapped up nine minutes from time when a poor clearance by goalkeeper Tomas Kosicky handed the ball to Juve and allowed Quagliarella to dart through the middle of the defense to put the game out of reach.