Tévez keeps Juventus on course for title

Juventus's hunt for a third straight Serie A title continued apace on Wednesday night despite midweek victories for nearest rivals AS Roma and SSC Napoli.

Antonio Conte's team remain 14 points clear of Roma in second after edging out Parma FC in Turin thanks to two goals in eight first-half minutes from Carlos Tévez. Cristian Molinaro reduced the arrears after half-time for sixth-placed Parma.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Roma had held off Juve's city rivals Torino FC by the same scoreline in the capital to establish their own nine-point cushion over SSC Napoli. With Roma also having a game in hand on both Juve and Napoli, the onus was therefore on Rafael Benítez's men to respond to Sunday's home defeat by ACF Fiorentina and at least tighten their grip on third spot.

This Napoli achieved with a 4-2 success at rock-bottom Calcio Catania, where two first-half goals from Duván Zapata sandwiched further strikes by José Callejón and Henrique for the visitors. Catania mustered second-half consolations from Fabián Monzón and Norbert Gyömber.

Fourth-ranked Fiorentina, meanwhile, succumbed 1-0 to AC Milan in Florence. Philippe Mexès headed in the rebound after a Mario Balotelli free-kick had been saved by Neto. Balotelli then sealed the points with another set piece. Elsewhere, unanswered goals from Giuseppe De Luca and Germán Denis took Atalanta BC past AS Livorno Calcio and into seventh spot.

Alberto Gilardino and Giannis Fetfatzidis were on target as Genoa CFC accounted for visitors SS Lazio 2-0. AC Chievo Verona downed Bologna FC 3-0, with two-goal Alberto Paloschi and Luca Rigoni doing the damage to leave the away team hovering a place above the relegation zone. Cagliari Calcio also did their safety chances no harm with a 1-0 home success over Hellas Verona FC, earned by Nenê's effort.

Second-bottom US Sassuolo Calcio were undone 2-1 at home by UC Sampdoria, with Gianluca Sansone and Stefano Okaka goals bookending an Alessandro Longhi strike.