Juventus extend lead with 4-1 drubbing of Roma

Juventus’ midfielder Andrea Pirlo celebrates after scoring a goal during an Italian Serie A football match against Roma at the Juventus stadium in Turin.

MILAN - Juventus pulled away from Napoli at the top of Italy’s Serie A on Saturday with a 4-1 thrashing of Roma.

Roma coach Zdenek Zeman had helped stoke the fires in the days leading up to the match with comments on an autobiography by former Serie A player Matias Almeyda which revived Juventus’s murky doping past.

But on the night Juve, who went into the match joint top of the table with Napoli, simply outclassed the visitors to leave Roma with two wins from six games.

Midfielder Andrea Pirlo opened the scoring for Juventus in the 11th minute when he sent a sumptuous free kick past Dutch ‘keeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

Roma’s defence then went into panic mode and a handball by Brazilian Castan led the referee to point to the spot.

Chilean international Arturo Vidal stepped up to make it 2-0 in the 16th minute, and three minutes later provided the assist for Alessandro Matri to sneak in behind Roma’s defence to put Juve 3-0 up.

AC Milan‘s forward Stephan El Shaarawy (R) escapes with the ball during their Serie A football match against Parma at Ennio Tardini stadium in Parma. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Roma’s Pablo Osvaldo had voiced his hopes in midweek of taking all three points in Turin and the Argentine-born Italy international was on hand to reduce the arrears from the spot in the 69th minute.

However Roma never seemed likely to cut the deficit further and second half substitute Sebastian Giovinco made it four for the hosts in the 90th minute.

Napoli face Samdoria on Sunday when the rest of the league fixtures will be played.

Earlier AC Milan outclassed Parma but came away from the away fixture with a share of the points in a 1-1 draw.