Juventus' Carlos Tevez celebrates after scoring against Parma during their Italian Serie A soccer match at the Olympic stadium in Turin November 9, 2014. [Photo/Agencies] |
MILAN?- Carlos Tevez scored a stunning goal to help Juventus crush Parma 7-0 and retain its three-point advantage over Roma, which eased to a 3-0 win at home to Torino later on Sunday.
Tevez ran most of the length of the field and beat four men to score Juventus' fourth before doubling his tally minutes later.
"We had a great game," said Tevez, who was recently called up to the Argentina squad for the first time in nearly 3 { years. "It was important to win and we were good in making hardly any errors. After the last international break, we missed so many goalscoring opportunities. Today we made up for our previous mistakes and we were perfect in front of goal."
Fernando Llorente and substitute Alvaro Morata also both netted twice, and Stephan Lichtsteiner was also on target to send Parma to its heaviest defeat in Serie A.
Lazio missed the opportunity to move third after a 2-1 loss at Empoli, and was leapfrogged by Napoli which won 1-0 at Fiorentina.
Hellas Verona snatches a 2-2 draw at 10-man Inter Milan.
Chievo Verona beat fellow struggler Cesena 2-1 to move off the bottom of the table, while Palermo and Cagliari had penalties saved in 1-1 draws at home to Udinese and Genoa.
Parma travelled to Turin hoping it had kickstarted its season with last week's surprise 2-0 win over Inter which had ended a club record run of six consecutive defeats.
Juventus, which was coming off the back of a 3-2 victory over Olympiakos in the Champions League, took the lead in the 24th minute when Llorente rushed in to tap home the rebound after Paul Pogba's shot was parried by Antonio Mirante.
Lichsteiner doubled Juve's advantage five minutes later with a scorching 25-yard strike into the top right corner and the Switzerland defender unselfishly crossed for Llorente to volley home his third goal in as many games in the 36th.
Tevez had the whole stadium on its feet with his superb individual goal five minutes after the break and he went off to a standing ovation shortly after doubling his tally when Mirante again only parried Pogba's strike.
Morata beat the offside trap to tap home Kingsley Coman's pass, five minutes after coming off the bench, before completing Parma's misery with a volley two minutes from time.
Parma is bottom of the table again as half-time substitute Sergio Pellissier scored his first two goals of the season for Chievo, heading in the winner moments after Milan Djuric's equalizer for Cesena two minutes from time.
Roma knew it had to win to prevent Juventus from extending its Serie A lead and it got off to a great start when Vasilis Torosidis slotted home Francesco Totti's cross in the eighth minute.
Miralem Pjanic sent a free kick crashing off the frame of the goal before a low strike from Seydou Keita and Adem Ljajic's unstoppable effort sealed the result.
There was a standing ovation when midfielder Kevin Strootman came on for the final eight minutes for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in March.
In the evening's other match, it seemed as if Inter was set for more misery when Luca Toni volleyed Verona in front in the 10th minute but the home side fought back with a brace from Mauro Icardi.
Moments after Icardi's second, Verona could have leveled when Gary Medel was sent off for handball but Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic saved Toni's penalty.
Both sides also hit the woodwork before substitute Nico Lopez's last-gasp leveler.
Lazio was looking for a sixth win in seven matches while Empoli was hoping to avoid a fourth successive defeat.
The home side took a surprise lead when Federico Barba headed home a corner for his first Serie A goal seven minutes into the second half.
Massimo Maccarone doubled Empoli's lead three minutes later before Filip Djordjevic headed in what proved to be a consolation for Lazio.
Gonzalo Higuain scored the only goal of the game as Napoli moved a point above Sampdoria and four behind Roma.
Higuain, who had an earlier strike ruled out for offside, fired in a poor clearance by Nenad Tomovic in the 62nd minute following a cross from Jose Callejon.