Juventus marches on with comfortable win over Cagliari
Milan - Gonzalo Higuain struck his 21st Serie A brace to go joint-top in the scoring charts as Juventus opened up a seven-point lead with a comfortable 2-0 win at Cagliari on Sunday.
Higuain's 17th and 18th goals of the league season means the Argentina striker is tied with Roma star Edin Dzeko.
Juventus, claiming a 20th win in 24 games, remains top of Serie A with a seven-point lead on Roma.
Third-placed Napoli is nine points behind the Turin giant, days ahead of a crucial Champions League trip to Real Madrid.
Juventus is not in action in Europe until a trip to Porto on February 22, and Massimiliano Allegri's men have capitalised to further underline their bid for a record sixth consecutive title.
Allegri, coach of Cagliari before he moved to AC Milan and led the Rossoneri to the 2011 title, took charge of Juventus in the league for the 100th time and stuck with the 4-2-3-1 system that has recently replaced the 3-5-2 formation.
Juve was without defender Andrea Barzagli due to injury and Miralem Pjanic was rested for Claudio Marchisio; the latter was eventually replaced by the Bosnian midfielder having sent Higuain on his way to the opener.
Although Mario Mandzukic's early header came close, Gianluigi Buffon was tested by a Bruno Alves free kick that inched wide, awarded after Giorgio Chiellini hacked down Nicolo Barella on the edge of the area.
Chiellini made way for Daniele Rugani and Juventus took the lead with its first genuine chance.
Marchisio's ball over the Cagliari back line found Higuain on the run and the Argentine timed it to perfection to chip Rafael at the 'keeper's far post.
It was Higuain's sixth consecutive Serie A match on target but there was more to come only two minutes after the restart.
Paulo Dybala was the willing recipient of Juan Cuadrado's ball after a speedy attack by the Colombian, and set up Higuain for an angled strike.
It was the 24th time in Serie A that Higuain, who now has 21 braces and three hat-tricks, had scored multiple goals in a game since arriving from Real Madrid in 2013.