Soccer News

Del Piero notches 200th goal, Roma edge 10-man Udinese

Oct 28, 2006, 20:10 GMT

Milan - Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero scored his 200th goal Saturday as the Turin side beat 1-0 Frosinone to move close to the top of the Italian Serie B also thanks to a favourable ruling by a sports arbitration court. Juventus in the summer were stripped of both titles won in the past two seasons and were relegated to the lower division with a 17-point deficit for their role in a wide match-fixing scandal. A sports court late Friday reduced their deficit to minus nine points, which, coupled with the win over Frosinone, allowed them to leap forward onto 13 points from eight games, remaining five points adrift of leaders Genoa. 'I dedicate this goal to myself and to all those who rejoiced with me for 200 times,' Del Piero said. 'It is an achievement that fills me with pride for all the things that tie me to this team, to Turin, to these fans.' In Udine, Roma clinched a second-half winner through a tap-in from defender Matteo Ferrari, who pounced on a loose ball after Romanian Christian Chivu aimed a dangerous diving header. Five minutes later, Udinese lost part of their offensive power as Ghanian midfielder Sulley Muntari was dismissed for a harsh foul on Ferrari. Roma remain third in the Serie A standings on 17 points from nine games, just one point shy of joint leaders Inter Milan and Palermo. Later Saturday Inter play a high-voltage derby against penalised AC Milan, who had no reduction of their eight-point deficit and lie on seven points in the lower half of the table. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur