Dzeko at the double as Roma stick to Juve

Juventus were given an extra incentive to move further clear of their scudetto rivals when AC Milan, who stunned the champions 1-0 last weekend to close the gap to two points, crashed 3-0 at Genoa on Tuesday.

Roma turned pre-match predictions on their head by handing Sassuolo their second-biggest home defeat of the season to walk away with the spoils, although their seventh win of the campaign was tempered by Alessandro Florenzi crumbling to the ground with a suspected serious knee ligament injury.

Although Juventus underlined their credentials with a classy 4-1 win at home to Sampdoria, which saw Mario Mandzukic hit his maiden goal of the season and defender Giorgio Chiellini hit a brace, Roma remain just two points in arrears.

Napoli capitalised on Milan's earlier collapse to move up to third at four points adrift ahead of the sides' clash in Turin this Saturday.

Thanks to a battling 2-0 home win over Empoli, with Dries Mertens crucially breaking the deadlock six minutes after the restart, Maurizio Sarri's men are now just two behind Roma.

Milan dropped to fourth with Lazio moving up one place to fifth after a 4-1 rout of Cagliari that included a superb double from Ciro Immobile and a great, final goal from Felipe Anderson.

Elsewhere, embattled Inter Milan coach Frank De Boer saw his survival hopes boosted by Mauro Icardi's 88th minute winner in a 2-1 home win over Torino that, nevertheless, saw the nervous Nerazzurri miss chance after chance.

De Boer was given the backing of club bosses earlier on Wednesday, but will remain concerned at his side's inability to finish the easiest of scoring chances.

Roma travelled to Sassuolo wary of the Tuscans' formidable home form, and were initially proved right when Paolo Cannavaro fired a bullet header past Wojciech Szczesny on 12 minutes after being left unmarked on the edge of the box.

Roma missed a series of chances to pull the match level, Radja Nainggolan's screamer coming off the crossbar and Dzeko also thumping the bar from a low Emerson cross before the interval.

Dzeko made amends in the 57th minute, latching on to Mohamed Salah's superb cross-field ball to beat Andrea Consigli with a crisp angled drive.

Salah then saw an attempt cleared a metre before the line by Gregoire Defrel moments later, but Roma were soon in the driving seat after Pol Lirola came off the bench to clumsily barge into Dzeko.

The referee pointed to the spot and Dzeko fired into Consigli's top corner. It was his 10th league goal in nine appearances this season and means he shares top spot with Icardi.

Stephan El Shaarawy threatened a third goal moments later, and although Consigli saved Nainggolan was quick to tap in the rebound.