Gonzalo Higuain returned to scoring ways as champions Juventus regained top spot from misfiring Napoli thanks to a 4-0 rout of outclassed Genoa in Turin on Wednesday.
Gonzalo Higuain returned to scoring ways as champions Juventus regained top spot from misfiring Napoli thanks to a 4-0 rout of outclassed Genoa in Turin on Wednesday.
Higuain had failed to find the net in Juve’s past two outings — a scoreless draw with Sevilla in the Champions League and a 2-1 defeat to Inter Milan on Sunday.
But the Argentine striker quashed any emerging doubts about his talents with his fourth goal of the season just after the half hour after defender Daniele Rugani had given Juve a 14th minute lead.
Juventus were dominant throughout and their visitors from Sardinia were lucky not to escape with more punishment.
Dani Alves hit Juve’s third minutes before the interval and Mario Lemina saw his drive turned into the Cagliari net by Luca Ceppitelli in the closing minutes.
After Napoli’s scoreless draw at Genoa, where Pepe Reina had to produce several key saves for the visitors late on, Juventus lead Napoli by one point, with Roma moving up to third after a 4-0 rout of league newcomers Crotone which included Edin Dzeko's first brace of the season.
Stephen El Shaarawy fired Roma into a 25th minute lead when he pounced on a cutback on the left side of the area to fire a deflected shot past Alex Cordaz.
Egyptian international Mohamed Salah doubled Roma’s lead on 37 minutes when he chipped Cordaz from a similar position.
And Dzeko put the result beyond all reasonable when he lobbed the Italian ‘keeper after running on to Francesco Totti’s chip three minutes after the restart.
Minutes later Dzeko had his fourth of the season, and first brace of the campaign, after slipping past his marker to sidefoot Salah’s unselfish cross past Cordaz.
Inter overcame their poor start to the season under new coach Frank De Boer with an emphatic 2-1 win over Juventus on Sunday.
