Irresistible Juventus thump Chievo for 12th league win in a row

MILAN (Reuters) – Juventus clocked up their 12th successive Serie A win on Sunday when they swept aside Chievo 4-0 away in a hopelessly one-sided encounter.

Alvaro Morata set Juventus on their way with two first-half goals before Alex Sandro and inspirational midfielder Paul Pogba added two more in the second half.

The win left Juventus, who are aiming for a fifth successive title, with 48 points from 22 games, one ahead of Napoli who began the weekend as leaders and are at home to Empoli later on Sunday (1400 GMT).

It also equalled their record number of consecutive league wins in a single season.

Juventus needed only six minutes to take the lead when Stephan Lichtsteiner’s low cross found Morata at the far post and the Spaniard tapped in from close range.

Morata, who scored twice in the Wednesday’s 3-0 Italian Cup win over Inter Milan, took his tally to four in a week with another tap-in six minutes before the break after Paulo Dybala and Sami Khedira combined to carve open the Chievo defence.

Juve’s spluttering start to the season, which included a 1-1 draw at home to Chievo, was a distant memory as they continued to dominate the game after the break.

They added a third in the 61st minute when Lichtsteiner played a one-two with Dybala and fed the ball to Pogba who in turn played it into the path of Alex Sandro, who rifled it home emphatically.

Pogba completed the rout when he collected the ball just outside the area, weaved his way past two defenders and side-footed a low shot past exasperated Chievo goalkeeper Albano Bizzarri.

The Frenchman was denied a second goal by the crossbar in stoppage time after a stunning piece of control to bring down a long pass out of defence.

(Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne; editing by Toby Davis)