Juve thump Lecce to go seven points clear
Juventus moved seven points clear at the top of Serie A on Friday after hammering Lecce 4-0.
TURIN (AFP) - Juventus moved seven points clear at the top of Serie A on Friday after hammering struggling Lecce 4-0 in Turin and piling the pressure on title rivals Lazio.
A superb Paulo Dybala strike and Cristiano Ronaldo s penalty just after the hour mark made sure of the result at the Allianz Stadium before two late strikes from Gonzalo Higuain and Matthijs de Ligt completed the rout against a Lecce team who had to play for an hour with 10 men.
The away side meanwhile stay third-from-bottom, level on 25 points with Genoa a place above them and a point behind Sampdoria in 16th.
Juve started the match off the pace and while Adrien Rabiot forced a good save and Ronaldo flashed a powerful shot wide, Lecce comfortably kept the hosts at bay right until Fabio Lucioni got himself sent off.
The 32-year-old got tangled up on the ball under no pressure on the half way line and then clumsily bundled over Rodrigo Bentancur.
Maurizio Sarri s team were still below their best but should have been at least a goal up at half-time after Ronaldo and Federico Bernardeschi both blazed over from point-blank range just before the break.
Juve pressed ahead after the restart, with Leonardo Bonucci s header forcing a smart stop from Lecce keeper Gabriel and Dybala whipping a curling effort just wide.
Argentine Dybala was not to be denied however, when he picked the ball up on the edge of the area in the 53rd minute and crashed a high shot home to break brave Lecce s resistance.
Ronaldo then bagged his goal from the spot in the 62nd minute after being tripped by Luca Rossettini.
However the Portuguese will be kicking himself that he didn t come away from this game with more goals after missing several presentable chances.
By that time Lecce were playing for damage limitation but two quickfire goals made the scoreline a more accurate representation of the balance of play.
Higuain, who had already gone close just seconds after being brought on as a 77th-minute substitute, pounced on Ronaldo s deflected backheel with seven minutes left before sweeping a fine left-footed finish high over Gabriel.
Dutchman de Ligt then bundled home the fourth two minutes later, stooping low to head in Douglas Costa s whipped cross from the right to leave Lazio having to win their home clash with Fiorentina on Saturday evening to cut the gap back to four points.
