Captain Gianluigi Buffon hailed a “fundamental” win for Juventus after Gonzalo Higuain’s first-half strike secured a 1-0 victory over AS Roma and sent the champions seven points clear at the top of Serie A on Saturday.
“It’s a fundamental win for us because the championship still has a long way to go,” Juventus goalkeeper Buffon told Mediaset. “It gives us some more belief and a bit of a cushion that allows us to head into the Christmas period feeling great.”
Roma traveled to Turin determined to reduce their four-point deficit to the five-time consecutive Serie A champions in the penultimate league fixture before the Christmas break, but the visitors paid the price when Daniele de Rossi failed to deal with striker Higuain on the quarter-hour mark, the Argentine muscling his way past to beat Roma’s Wojciech Szczesny with a superb strike inside the goalkeeper’s near post.
Photo: AP
Despite an improved second-half performance from Luciano Spalletti’s men, Roma failed in their attempt to beat the champions in a league fixture for the first time since 2010.
Juventus celebrated a 25th Serie A home win in a row — matching their own all-time league record from August 2013 to December 2014 — but Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri said titles, not records, are all that interests him.
Juventus, the league and Coppa Italia champions, face Coppa finalists AC Milan in Doha, Qatar, for the Supercoppa Italiana on Friday.
“It was important for us to get the right result. We’ve left Roma seven points behind us, but the championship is still long,” said Allegri, who was quick to pour water on Juve’s latest record-equalling feat. “That doesn’t interest me, the important thing is to finish top of the table at the end of the season. Now, we want to head to Doha in good physical condition.”
Roma remain second, but at seven points behind the pundits in Italy have been quick to suggest Juventus already have the title sewn up. Spalletti did not agree, but admitted it is crunch time.
“We will have to bounce back from this and do really well if we’re to close the gap,” said the Italian, who had Polish goalkeeper Szczesny to thank for keeping the score down in the second half. “Juventus were better than us individually, they showed how strong they are tonight. We did well to close down some of their attacks, but we were lacking quality in our final touches.”
It was Juventus’ third consecutive league victory since a shock 3-1 defeat to Genoa last month which gave hope to the likes of AS Roma and AC Milan.
“After what happened in Genoa the real, stubborn and determined Juventus was pushed to the fore,” Buffon said. “That’s what we saw tonight, we won as a team.”
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