Juventus reclaims Serie A lead with 2-0 win

By ANDREW DAMPF

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:03 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2011

ROME (AP) -Claudio Marchisio added another goal in his breakout season and Arturo Vidal converted a controversial penalty as Juventus beat Cesena 2-0 Sunday to reclaim the Italian league lead.

Cesena's 42-year-old goalkeeper, Francesco Antonioli, had kept Juventus in check until Marchisio fired in a long shot between two defenders with his weaker left foot in the 72nd minute at the Turin club's new stadium.

It was Marchisio's sixth goal of the season, drawing him even closer to the player he is most often compared to - former Juve midfielder Marco Tardelli, who scored eight goals in a campaign twice during the early 1980s and helped lead Italy to the 1982 World Cup title.

Marchisio was once a questionable selection for Italy's national team under former coach Marcello Lippi. But he has developed into a reliable presence in the center of the pitch for both the Azzurri and Juventus, having scored in Italy's 1-1 draw at Serbia in October.

In the 80th, Antonioli punched away a cross and then collided with Juventus forward Emanuele Giaccherini, receiving a red card that set up a penalty for Vidal despite vehement protests from Cesena.

Cesena had already used all three of its substitutions, so defender Guillerme Rodriguez had to put on Antonioli's jersey and gloves and step in goal for Vidal's penalty. They weren't of much use, though, as Rodriguez moved to his right and Vidal easily knocked the ball into the other corner of the net.

Juventus moved two points ahead of AC Milan and Udinese.

AC Milan had provisionally moved top with a 2-0 win at Genoa on Friday, while Udinese edged out struggling Inter Milan 1-0 Saturday at the San Siro.

Juventus remains the only unbeaten team in Serie A and this win was all the more impressive since it came without key midfielder Andrea Pirlo, who was suspended.

"This result shows that we're maturing," Juventus manager Antonio Conte said. "When you try every which way to score you risk making yourself nervous and getting anxious. I told the players during the break not to let their nerves get to them and to move wider. I looked at the statistics and we had 70 percent of the ball possession and 21 shots. We're improving day by day."

The only negative moment for Juve came when captain Alessandro Del Piero was carried off in the 62nd after being bloodied by a kick to the face from defender Marco Rossi, opening a wound above his left eye that required eight stitches.

Meanwhile, Fiorentina beat eight-man Roma 3-0 after goals from Stevan Jovetic, Alessandro Gamberini and Santiago Silva.

Roma was reduced to 10 men when Juan was shown a straight red card for pushing Jovetic down in the 15th, even though Jovetic appeared to be holding Juan's jersey. Jovetic converted the ensuing penalty and Gamberini doubled the lead in the 44th, leaping over Roma defender Gabriel Heinze to head in a corner.

Having missed all of last season following knee surgery, Jovetic has six goals this campaign. Gamberini, meanwhile, has now scored three times - the only goals he's scored in the past five seasons - against Roma.

After Roma midfielder Fernando Gago was sent off midway through the second half for his second yellow card, Silva added another penalty for Fiorentina in the 86th after Bojan Krkic was shown red for blocking a shot with his hand.

Fiorentina players wore black armbands and a minute of silence was observed before the match in honor of Brazil great Socrates, who died earlier Sunday at the age of 57. Socrates played for Fiorentina in the 1984-85 season, and scored six goals.

Elsewhere, Bologna beat Siena 1-0 as Marco Di Vaio scored in the 28th following a splendid backheel pass from Alessandro Diamanti.

Also, Chievo Verona was held to a scoreless draw at home by Atalanta.

Earlier in the lunchtime fixture, Colombian forward Victor Ibarbo scored his first Serie A goal to give Cagliari a 1-0 win at Catania in a matchup of two island-based clubs.

In the 64th, the 21-year-old Ibarbo slalomed past two defenders near the endline and the corner flag, did well to keep the ball in play, then beat Catania goalkeeper Mariano Andujar.

Cagliari goalkeeper Michael Agazzi preserved the victory with a difficult save against Maxi Lopez in added time.

Later, Parma was hosting Palermo in the night match, while Lazio faces Novara on Monday.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news service reports

A tiny, all-white Appalachian church in rural Kentucky that voted to bar interracial couples from its congregation will be asked to overturn its decision, its pastor said Friday.

Stacy Stepp, pastor of Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he will ask members to reconsider?the decision, perhaps as early as Sunday.

"We're going to get it resolved," Stepp told the Kentucky newspaper.

The church was drawn harsh criticism this week after its members voted 9-6 on the resolution, which says the church "does not condone interracial marriage" or allow such couples to join or take part in certain worship activities.

The church member who crafted the resolution, Melvin Thompson, said he called the matter an "internal affair."

"I am not racist. I will tell you that. I am not prejudiced against any race of people, have never in my lifetime spoke evil about a race," said Thompson, the church's former pastor who stepped down earlier this year. "That's what this is being portrayed as, but it is not."

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NBC New York?s Greg Wilson, msnbc.com's Sevil Omer and The Associated Press?contributed to this report.

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"Bearded Old Man" belongs to an unidentified private collector. It will go on display May-July of next year at the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, where the finding was announced Friday.

Van de Wetering collaborated with restorer Martin Bijl and technology professors Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology and Koen Janssens of the University of Antwerp, among others in the reclassification.

Researchers used at least five different kinds of X-ray scans to analyze the chemical makeup of pigments in the painting and probe its hidden layers of paint. The scans were done at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and ESRF in Grenoble, France.

Rembrandt produced hundreds of paintings, etchings and drawings, but new finds are extremely rare. However, four works formerly attributed to his students ? a talented group in their own right ? have been reclassified as by Rembrandt since 2008, often with the help of new technology.

_____

Online:

www.rembrandt.ua.ac.be

Associated Press

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Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience? and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

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