Juventus moved nine points clear in Serie A by beating Palermo 4-0 at home on Sunday while Francesco Totti bagged a dramatic late equaliser as AS Roma drew 3-3 at Atalanta.
With second-placed Napoli losing 2-0 at Inter Milan onSaturday, Juve tightened their grip at the top and took a major step towards a record fifth consecutive Italian title with goals by Sami Khedira, Paul Pogba, Juan Cuadrado and Simone Padoin.
Juventus moved up to 79 points with five games to play, Napoli have 70 and Roma are third on 65.
“Yesterday’s game made it look like the challenge for the Scudetto was over,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri told reporters. “But it’s not true.
“I won’t calculate our odds of winning, we just need to get more points.”
Khedira controlled Pogba’s lofted ball with his chest before flicking it past Palermo keeper Stefano Sorrentino in the 10th minute.
Pogba added a second in the 70th minute, finishing at the back post after the visitors failed to deal with a corner, before Cuadrado’s superb individual effort and Padoin’s late finish underlined the home side’s dominance.
“You never know in football,” Cuadrado was quoted as saying on the Juventus website (www.juventus.com). “Look at how Barcelona’s lead in La Liga has been trimmed of late.”
Barca have squandered a nine-point lead at the top of La Liga and are now level on points with Atletico Madrid.
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Davide Ballardini had returned to the Palermo hotseat on Tuesday, their eighth managerial change of the season, but was unable to prompt a change in fortunes for the relegation-threatened outfit, who dropped to 19th place on 28 points.
Totti’s future at Roma is unresolved after a testing season and a strained relationship with coach Luciano Spalletti, but the 39-year-old demonstrated his enduring class with an 85th-minute equaliser in a thrilling six-goal draw at Atalanta.
Roma went 2-0 up inside the first half an hour after goals from Lucas Digne and Radja Nainggolan, before Marco D’Alessandro halved the deficit in the 33rd minute.
Roma old boy Marco Borriello came back to haunt his former club with his first goal for Atalanta as his excellent header evaded Wojciech Szczesny, and he fired the home side ahead in the 50th minute.
Totti had the final say as he hammered home Alessandro Florenzi’s cut back for the 301st goal of his glittering career.
Spalletti was sent to the stands in the dying minutes of the draw, which left his side four points clear of fourth-placed Inter Milan in the race for the final Champions League qualifying berth.
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“We often lose our heads,” Spalletti said. “Totti’s goal doesn’t change anything for me. If he wants to be a player, he’ll be a player. The team still won nine games without him.”
After the match, Spalletti released a statement refuting reports in the Italian media that he and Totti had a physical confrontation in the tunnel following the game.
“I was very surprised by what I read, as I was sent off, I didn’t join my players in the tunnel,” Spalletti told the Roma website (www.asroma.com).
“I categorically deny that there was a dispute or, worse still, a physical confrontation with any of my players. I never put my hands on my players.”
Fifth-placed Fiorentina beat Sassuolo 3-1 and remain seven points clear of AC Milan, who won 1-0 at Sampdoria in Christian Brocchi’s first match in charge thanks to Carlos Bacca’s 71st-minute strike.
