Bonansea's double sees off Milan

Juventus Women stay in top spot of the Serie A standings after this afternoon's victory over Milan.

Barbara Bonansea's double was the difference, who are one point ahead of Fiorentina in second, whilst extending the gap over third-place Milan to five points.

It was an exciting and challenging match that saw the Bianconere well support by over 2,000 fans at the Stadio Silvio Piola in Vercelli. Juventus Women almost made the dream start, as after just 13 seconds, Eniola Aluko his the post with a thunderous strike, showing with the Bianconere wasting no time to make an immediate impact.

Aluko would be further involved, with the England international being foiled on two occasions by Milan goalkeeper, Maria Korenciova in the 22nd and 31st minute. At the other end Doris Bacic was called into action, as the Croatian made a fantastic stop on league top-scorer, Valentina Giaciniti's low drive.

The second saw Cristiana Girelli creat a good scoring chance in the 52nd minute only to put her effort over the bar. However, she would play an instrumental part in the opener just two minutes later.

Bonansea won possession back with a cushioned header to Girelli, following a poor Milan clearance, and the number 10 played a perfectly weighted lofted-pass into the path of Bonansea and the Italian forward took it first time to fire past the Milan keeper and put the Bianconere a goal up.

She wasn't done there and continued to threathen, first from a scissor-kick that hit the bar on 64 minutes, before wrapping the game up inside the final five. A splendid slalom into the box saw Bonansea pick her spot and hit the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 and wrap the game up for Juventus Women!

POST-MATCH COMMENTS

"It was inevitable that the result came from a great performance - said Coach Rita with satisfaction - We knew that we had to give a lot, so I'm very happy, and I congratulate the girls on the win. We tried to make the most of our strengths from the start, and we kept calm and focused as we needed to. We did well also in defence, with good movementl, closing the spaces. It was a truly deserved victory. Now let's think about the Coppa Italia, as we want to finish off the tie and get into the next stage."

"We entered the pitch very focused, and it's very important victory - said the match-winner, Barbara Bonansea - Now we will try to do the best in our upcoming matches until the end of the season."

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