Tevez fires Juventus five points clear, Napoli go third

Juventus reached the halfway point of the Serie A season with a commanding five-point lead over Roma after thrashing Verona for the second time in four days on Sunday.

Paul Pogba and Serie A leading scorer Carlos Tevez both scored in the opening seven minutes as Juve extended their lead at the top of the standings with a 4-0 win.

Juve have 46 points from 19 games, with Roma on 41 after they were held 1-1 at Palermo on Saturday.

Napoli are a distant third with 33 points after beating Lazio 1-0 in Rome on Sunday thanks to an 18th minute goal from Argentine international Gonzalo Higuain.

Fast-starting Juventus have made a habit of scoring in the opening minutes of games, with nine of their league-leading 42 coming inside the opening 15 minutes.

Pogba struck after three minutes with a precise low shot from 20 metres. Four minutes later Tevez scored, taking advantage of a dummy by Pogba that left him alone in the box.

Verona suffered a 6-1 drubbing by Juve on Thursday in the Coppa Italia round of 16 and they looked to be heading for even worse punishment on Sunday.

However, Andrea Mandorlini's side held firm for the next 59 minutes before Roberto Pereyra grabbed his first goal for Juve.

Eight minutes later Tevez netted his second of the game after receiving a pass from Claudio Marchisio inside the box.

"We have to keep on winning," the 21-year-old Pogba told Sky

Sports Italia. "We can't think about Roma."

Napoli moved above Lazio in the table after Higuain scored his seventh goal in four matches against Lazio.

The Argentine controlled a Dries Mertens through ball and unleashed a thunderous angled shot past substitute goalie Etrit Berisha.

"We have to continue like this," Higuain told Sky Sports Italia. "It is important to be back in third place."

Sampdoria, level on points with Napoli, scored two second half goals to earn their second away win of the season, 2-0 at Parma. Eder set up Gonzalo Bergessio's first goal of the season and Roberto Soriano added a second 16 minutes later.

Fiorentina are sixth after a 2-1 win at Chievo Verona - Khouma Babacar scoring a stoppage-time winner.

AC Milan lost their fourth home game of the season, going down 1-0 to Atalanta while Genoa battled back three times to earn a 3-3 draw with Sassuolo.