Gonzalo Higuain hit a brace as Juventus capitalised on Napoli’s shock defeat at Atalanta to go four points clear in Serie A with a 3-0 win away at Empoli yesterday.
Massimiliano Allegri’s men travelled to the Carlo Castellani stadium, where the hosts’ best result against the Bianconeri was a scoreless draw in 2008, confident of ensuring that they would remain on top of the table going into the international break.
Yet the Turin giants missed a host of first-half chances before Argentine striker Paulo Dybala finally broke the deadlock on 65 minutes with a close-range strike. It opened the floodgates, Higuain pouncing on Mario Lemina’s precision pass only two minutes later to beat Lukasz Skorupski from the edge of the area.
Three minutes after that, the Argentine cheekily dispossessed Marco Zambelli yards from the Empoli goal to round the Polish ‘keeper for his second of the day. Higuain moves on to seven goals in all competitions this season, six in Serie A, in which he is level with compatriot Mauro Icardi of Inter Milan.
“The lads did great on what is a difficult ground to play at,” Allegri said. “They had a few counter-attacks because we didn’t finish the job off on several occasions, but it was a different story in the second half. Once we scored, everything became much easier.”
Juventus are aiming for a record sixth consecutive Serie A title this season and their position at the top of the table was strengthened as Napoli suffered their first reverse of the campaign in Bergamo. Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri, speaking immediately after a 4-2 win over Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday, had warned of the potential dangers of their trip to Atalanta.
Napoli enjoyed a bright start, Lorenzo Insigne’s free-kick whizzing past Etrit Berisha’s upright. But the visitors were stunned by Andrea Petagna’s ninth-minute opener, and failed to recover. Papu Gomez’s cross inched over the head of Kalidou Koulibaly inside the area, but after ricocheting off the face of Faouzi Ghoulam the ball fell kindly for Petagna to drive past Pepe Reina at the ‘keeper’s near post.
It gave Atalanta wings, and Napoli were lucky not to concede more before the break. Reina clumsily punched a Gomez strike into the air and from the resulting corner, Boukary Drame saw his drive come back off the crossbar.
Petagna headed off-target from another Gomez cross down the left, while Arkadiusz Milik spurned the chance to level before half-time when Berisha got down smartly to palm off the line. Marek Hamsik, who opened the scoring against Benfica in midweek with his 101st goal for the club, came close with a daisy-cutter from Milik’s assist.
Reina then had to get down smart to smother after Roberto Gagliardini robbed Nikola Maksimovic at the byeline to fire a shot through the ‘keeper’s legs. Sarri replaced holding midfielder Jorginho with striker Manolo Gabbiadini in a last-ditch attempt to grab a share of the spoils. Gabbiadini, however, saw one late effort cleared off the line and, after Reina saved from Alberto Grassi on the resulting counter-attack, Koulibaly nodded over late on.
Elsewhere, Giovanni Simeone’s 77th-minute strike was enough to secure the points for Genoa in a 1-0 win at Bologna that moved the visitors up to provisional fifth place. Genoa are seven points behind Juventus but have a game in hand after their fixture against Fiorentina was abandoned last month due to heavy rain.
Sampdoria looked to be heading for their fifth defeat in seven games when Ilija Nestorovski gave Palermo the lead on the hour in Genoa. But the visitors saw Alessandro Gazzi sent off for a second bookable offence two minutes into added-on time, and Bruno Fernandes’ 95th-minute strike sent the Luigi Ferraris stadium into raptures.

Bacca sparks stunning Milan
fighback over Sassuolo
In a late match, a second-half penalty from Carlos Bacca sparked a stunning fightback as AC Milan dominated a thrilling seven-goal thriller 4-3 at home to Sassuolo. Vincenzo Montella’s hosts looked to be on their way to a resounding home defeat after a goal apiece from Francesco Acerbi and Lorenzo Pellegrini immediately after the restart gave Sassuolo a 3-1 lead by the 56th minute. But Colombia striker Bacca revived Rossoneri hopes when he stepped up to beat Andrea Consigli from the penalty spot after Luca Antei was ruled to have hauled down M’Baye Niang in the 69th minute.
The San Siro had been quickly silenced early in the opening half when Matteo Politano levelled for the visitors just a minute after Giacomo Bonaventura’s ninth-minute opener.
But the stadium erupted only four minutes after Bacca’s strike, thanks to an 18-year-old midfielder whose maiden Serie A goal will be remembered for years to come. Manuel Locatelli came off the bench to replace Milan captain Riccardo Montolivo on the hour and barely 15 minutes later he almost burst the Sassuolo net with a stunning half-volley from the edge of the area following a poor clearance.
Locatelli’s exuberant celebrations illustrated his disbelief and he was quickly mobbed by his Rossoneri teammates, but Milan weren’t finished. Minutes later, Gabriel Paletta rose above the Sassuolo defence to meet M’Baye Niang’s superb cross from the left side of the area to beat Consigli with a powerful angled header that restored Milan’s lead 13 minutes from the finish.
Milan suffered a nervous finale, teenage goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma producing a fine, one-handed save to stop Politano claiming a late share of the points. But Montella’s men held on for a fourth win in seven games that moved them up to provisional fifth, five points behind Juventus, ahead of Inter Milan’s late night away fixture at Roma.
Results
Empoli 0 Juventus 3 (Dybala 65, Higuain 67, 70)
Atalanta 1 (Petagna 9) Napoli 0
Bologna 0 Genoa 1 (Simeone 77)
Cagliari 2 (Di Gennaro 38, Padoin 56) Crotone 1 (Stoian 90+1)
Sampdoria 1 (Fernandes 90+5) Palermo 1 (Nestorovski 60)
AC Milan 4 (Bonaventura 9, Bacca 69-pen, Locatelli 73, Paletta 77) Sassuolo 3 (Politano 10, Acerbi 54, Pellegrini 56)
Torino 2 (Falque 15, Benassi 60) Fiorentina 1 (Babacar 84)
Played Saturday
Pescara 0 Chievo 2 (Meggiorini 76, Inglese 85)
Udinese 0 Lazio 3 (Immobile 28, 61, Keita 54)