Football
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Higuain brace saves Juventus, Napoli rout Cagliari with Mertens hat trick

Juventus came from behind to beat rivals Torino 3-1 and extend their lead at the top to seven points thanks to a brace from striker Gonzalo Higuain.

Andrea Belotti opened the scoring for Torino before Higuain got Juve level soon after, then hammered home in the 82nd minute. Substitute Miralem Pjanic then bagged another in the final minute.

The result boosts the Bianconeri seven points clear of Scudetto rivals Roma and AC Milan, who are joint second before going head-to-head in the capital on Monday night.

Juve then play host to Roma and visit lowly Crotone before seeing out a prosperous 2016 with a Supercoppa clash against Milan in Qatar just before Christmas.

Dries Mertens scored a hat trick as Napoli ran riot with a 5-0 win away to Cagliari.

Mertens was the hero in midweek as he secured Napoli's passage through to the Champions League round of 16, scoring the decisive goal in a 2-1 victory at Benfica. And the Belgium forward made it 13 goals for the season as Napoli extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games.

Cagliari survived until the 34th minute when Mertens turned smartly past Luca Ceppitelli and buried his shot in the far corner of Marco Storari's net. Napoli doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Storari superbly tipped Lorenzo Insigne's header onto the bar but Marek Hamsik volleyed the rebound home.

Piotr Zielinski fired home from outside the box soon after the restart and Hamsik slipped Mertens through after 69 minutes for another tidy finish. Three minutes later Mertens completed his hat-trick -- his second for Napoli -- when he broke through unchallenged.

Marcelo Brozovic's brace boosted Inter Milan to a 2-0 victory over Genoa and into the top half of the table.

The Croatian box-to-box midfielder notched the opener against the run of play at San Siro before blasting a powerful drive beyond visiting goalkeeper Mattia Perin in the second half.

The Nerazzurri are now eighth, three places and seven points shy of the nearest Europa League spot, while Genoa remain in 13th following a third defeat in six league games.

Chievo condemned bottom club Palermo to an eighth successive home defeat, with goals early in each half from Valter Birsa and Sergio Pellissier giving the visitors a 2-0 success.

Winger Birsa opened the scoring in the 14th minute and striker Pellissier added a second soon after the interval to help lift Chievo up four places to ninth in the table.

Udinese sprang a surprise with a 3-1 victory at sixth-placed Atalanta.

Duvan Zapata, on loan from Napoli, brought a tight contest to life on the stroke of half-time when he finished Cyril Thereau's pass

Atalanta had rattled off six straight wins before being beaten by league leaders Juventus last weekend and Jasmin Kurtic headed them level within two minutes of the re-start.

But Udinese continued to probe for openings and Seko Fofana restored their lead after 72 minutes from outside the box. Thereau wrapped up victory three minutes from time after Fofana had again shown his pace to break free.

Bologna's bid for three much-needed points was thwarted as they were held to a goalless home draw by relegation rivals Empoli.

Both sides found clear-cut chances hard to come by and when Bologna did threaten they found Empoli goalkeeper Lucasz Skorupski in fine form. Bologna were twice denied by Skorupski towards the end of the first half when efforts from Adam Nagy and Mattia Destro were well saved.

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