Juventus 4-0 Roma: Vidal, Pirlo and Marchisio strike as Conte's side open up three-point lead at top of Serie A

Juventus took a major step towards the Serie A title with a resounding 4-0 victory over 10-man Roma on Sunday evening.

Arturo Vidal put the Bianconeri two goals to the good inside the opening eight minutes before Andrea Pirlo made it 3-0, knocking home the rebound after his penalty attempt just before the half-hour mark had been saved by Gianluca Curci, who had taken over in goal following the dismissal of Maarten Stekelenburg.

Claudio Marchisio who added Juve’s fourth goal shortly after the interval as Antonio Conte’s men moved three points clear of title rivals AC Milan.

Undoubtedly buoyed by the news that the Rossoneri had been held at home by Bologna earlier in the day, Juventus made a rip-roaring start to the game, with Vidal netting a quickfire double.

The Chilean’s first goal was a wonderfully composed first-time finish with his left-foot from a cross from Paolo De Ceglie, after Mirko Vucinic had opened up the Giallorossi defence.

The latter was also heavily involved in Vidal’s second strike. Fabio Quagliarella cleverly took Daniele De Rossi out of the equation by jumping into the makeshift Roma centre-half as he attempted to head clear just inside his own half.

The ball dropped for Vucinic, who drove forward before feeding it wide to Vidal. Again, the former Bayer Leverkusen man did not even think twice before letting rip and beat Stekelenburg with a stunning right-footed shot from the edge of the area.

Roma were reeling and though they did improve from an offensive perspective, they continued to look desperately porous at the back. It came as no surprise, then, when Juve moved 3-0 up with just 29 minutes gone.

After Marquinho had gifted the hosts possession in midfield, the ball eventually found its way to the feet of Vucinic. The former Roma man took a couple of touches before playing a delightful outside-of-the-foot pass in to Marchisio, who was taken out by Stekelenburg after knocking the ball beyond the Roma keeper.

Stekelenburg rather harshly saw red for making minimal contact with Marchisio and although his replacement, Curci, saved Pirlo’s subsequent spot-kick, the midfielder was on hand to tuck away the rebound.

The game now over as a contest after less than half an hour of play, it was just a question of how many goals Juve would rack up.

In the end they managed just one more, Marchisio expertly placing the ball into the bottom right corner of the Roma goal early in the second half after a sublime lay-off from the effervescent Vucinic.

Marchisio went close to adding a fifth only to be denied by Curci but Juve were more than happy to settle for four as they cruised to a victory, which means that in light of their superior head-to-head record, they can afford to lose one of their five remaining fixtures and still win the title.

Roma, meanwhile, remain sixth in the standings and are now five points adrift of third-placed Lazio. 

With wthis won, Juventus the closer title Scudetto