Juventus 4 - 0 Cagliari: Juventus hammer Cagliari to reach Serie A summit

Posted Thursday, September 22, 2016 by PA

Juventus returned to the top of the Serie A table by humbling Cagliari 4-0 in Turin on Wednesday.

Goals from Daniele Rugani, Gonzalo Higuain, Dani Alves and Mario Lemina saw the Scudetto holders leapfrog Napoli, who were held to a goalless draw at Genoa.

Cagliari, meanwhile, suffered a third straight defeat on the road.

Juve had a point to prove following their Derby d'Italia defeat to Inter Milan and the champions wasted no time setting about promoted Cagliari.

Marco Storari did well to deny Miralem Pjanic and Higuain before Rugani scored a rare defender's goal in the 14th minute.

The former Empoli player was in the right place to tap the ball home, opening his account in Bianconero, after Storari saved Higuain's effort.

Juve kept pushing and doubled up through Higuain in the 33rd minute, the prolific Argentinian cleaning up Pjanic's spilled shot to infuriate Storari.

It was 3-0 at half-time thanks to Alves, who grabbed his first Juve goal by converting a Pjanic cross six minutes before the break.

Confident the game had already been won, Juve allowed veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to sit out the second half with Neto taking his place.

Any excitement was at a low level until Pjanic and then Hernanes tested the impressive Storari in the final 15 minutes, restoring a number of home fans to their feet.

Lemina made sure everyone was standing when he capitalised on a goalmouth scramble, his final touch taking a helpful deflection off Luca Ceppitelli before going in.