Carlos Tevez took his Serie A goals tally to 14 for the season as champions Juventus moved 10 points clear of closest challengers Roma with a 3-1 win over outclassed AC Milan on Saturday.
Roma can bring their deficit on the Turin giants back to seven points if they account for Cagliari on Sunday
But after what was another commanding performance from Massimiliano Allegri’s league leaders, Roma have their work cut out to stop Juventus from winning a fourth consecutive Italian championship.
“It’s three important points. A ten-point gap is quite significant but we have to keep our concentration intact and improve certain aspects of our games,” Allegri told Sky Sport.
“We played a good game but we gave away too many corners, one of which led to their goal while others put us in danger in the first half.
“I expected Milan to put us under pressure. They’re a top side and in January brought a few good players, and don’t forget they’ve got a few on the sidelines as well.
“They still have what it takes to challenge for a place in Europe.”
Embattled Milan unveiled several new players on Thursday including Mattia Destro, Gabriel Paletta and Luca Antonelli and the latter marked his debut with a goal for the visitors inside the half hour.
But Juventus were practically unstoppable from the word go and bossed this encounter from start to finish.
It took Argentinian international Tevez, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Thursday, only 14 minutes to stretch his tally at the top of the league scoring charts.
Milan defender Alex nodded the ball straight to Alvaro Morata on the halfway line and Tevez ran on to the Spaniard’s lob to outpace Paletta on the way towards goal before sliding the ball under Diego Lopez in the Milan net.
Left-back Antontelli, signed last week from Cagliari, gave Milan a rare chance to cheer when he rose highest at a corner to send a glancing header past Gianluigi Buffon at the keeper’s far post.
– Shortlived –
But Milan’s joy lasted barely three minutes.
Lopez came off his line to punch away a corner and after being slightly impeded by Leonardo Bonucci saw the defender’s cheeky sideswipe from Tevez’s header back in towards goal go past him and midfielder Sulley Muntari from four yards out.
Milan’s protests were waved away and the visitors suffered another blow when French forward Jeremy Menez, their top scorer this season on 12 goals, was forced off after appearing to suffer a dizzy spell.
Milan had claimed their first win of 2015 last week at home to basement side Parma, but any hopes they had of fighting their way back into the match soon faded.
With ex-Roma striker Destro suspended, Menez was replaced by Giampaolo Pazzini eight minutes before the break.
Juventus were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty soon after for a Michael Essien handling offence as the Ghanaian missed a header at a corner.
Pazzini spurned a great to chance to level on 53 minutes when he ran on to a poor clearance to the left of the area only to see Buffon pull off a great one-handed save at the near post.
“It’s a pity because with Pazzini we had the chance to pull level at 2-2 and that could have changed the game for us,” said Milan coach Filippo Inzaghi.
“I complimented the lads because, despite having several players missing, we played on a par with Juventus.”
But Juventus were firmly in control and stretched their lead in the 65th minute when Morata pounced after Claudio Marchisio’s drive smacked back off the crossbar.
The result left Juventus top on 53 points, 10 ahead of Roma with Napoli, in third, a further four points adrift.
Torino’s purple patch continued with a 3-1 win away to Verona which moved them up to seventh place.