Cuadrado makes dramatic entry as Juve stretch lead

Juventus winger Juan Cuadrado come off the bench after a three-month injury layoff to score the goal which set the Serie A leader on the way to a 3-1 win over AC Milan Saturday. Juve, chasing a seventh successive title, stretched their lead to four points despite conceding their first league goal this year, scored by their former defender Leonardo Bonucci. Napoli needed an own goal from Sassuolo midfielder Rogerio 10 minutes from time to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw against lowly Sassuolo. Elsewhere, there was another contentious decision involving the video assistant referee when Genoa were awarded a penalty and visitor SPAL had a player sent off for an alleged foul even though no contact appeared to be made. Paulo Dybala gave Juve a seventh-minute lead only for Bonucci, who left Juve at the end of last season, to head Milan level and end Juve's run of 959 minutes without conceding a goal - the second longest in Serie A history.

Juventus go 4 points clear at the top of Serie A ? pic.twitter.com/5mrJQGKCMX

— Dugout (@Dugout) March 31, 2018

Encouraged by that, Milan took the initiative and Hakan Calhanoglu rattled the bar with a powerful drive early in the second half. But, as so often, Juve dug themselves out of the hole, this time thanks to Cuadrado who met Sami Khedira's cross with a diving header at the far post with 11 minutes left. Khedira himself fired the third. With eight rounds of matches to play, Juve, who host Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final first leg Tuesday, lead with 78 points, followed by Napoli on 74, AS Roma on 60 and Inter Milan on 58. Napoli fell behind to a Matteo Politano goal at Sassuolo, who are 16th and four points clear of the drop zone, and only rescued a point when Rogerio turned Mario Rui's cross into his own goal under pressure from Jose Callejon. There was drama at Genoa where Gianluca Lapadula missed an early penalty against SPAL but was given a second chance after Francesco Vicari was controversially judged to have fouled him just before the half hour.

Mauro Icardi’s goal after 36 seconds is Inter’s fastest Serie A goal in the last 20 seasons

— Siavoush Fallahi (@SiavoushF) March 31, 2018

Vicari appeared to make no contact, but after a four-minute VAR consultation, the referee pointed to the spot and sent off the SPAL player. Lapadula converted but SPAL hit back with a Manuel Lazzarri goal on the hour. Elsewhere, Inter captain Mauro Icardi scored twice in a 3-0 win over Verona while Lazio blasted five goals in the last half hour to demolish table-propping Benevento 6-2. Icardi, left out of the Argentina squad for this month's friendlies which included a 6-1 defeat in Spain, got off the mark after only 36 seconds as he took his tally to 24 and Ivan Perisic was also on target. Benevento had goalkeeper Christian Puggioni sent off after nine minutes at fifth-placed Lazio for handling outside the area and fell behind to a Ciro Immobile goal. Astonishingly, the visitor hit back to lead 2-1 with goals by Danilo Cataldi and Guilherme but Lazio ran riot in the last half-hour, their goals including a second for Immobile, who took his season's tally to 26.

Ciro Immobile has become the first Lazio player since Hernán Crespo to score over 25 league goals in a single Serie A season ??? pic.twitter.com/tnn7KVli4o

— Dugout (@Dugout) March 31, 2018

Edin Dzeko came off the bench to equalise for third-placed Roma (60), who visit Barcelona in the Champions League Wednesday, after Erick Pulgar had given Bologna a first-half lead. Udinese slumped to their sixth successive Serie A defeat when they lost 2-0 at Atalanta, Fiorentina beat second-bottom Crotone 2-0 and Torino won 4-0 at Cagliari, with all their goals coming in the last half-hour.RESULTSBologna 1 (Plugar 18) Roma 1 (Dzeko 76)Inter 3 (Icardi 1, 48, Perisic 13) Verona 0Atalanta 2 (Petagna 68, Masiello 74) Udinese 0Fiorentina 2 (Simeone 3, Chiesa 62) Crotone 0Genoa 1 (Lapadula 30-P) SPAL 1 (Lazzari 60)Cagliari 0 Torino 4 (Falque 61, Ljajic 65, Ansaldi 79, Obi 87)Lazio 6 (Immobile 19, 68, Caicedo 60, De Vrij 66, Lucas 83, Alberto 90+1-P) Benevento 2 (Cataldi 23, Marques 51)Chievo 2 (Castro 62, Hetemaj 79) Sampdoria 1 (Quagliarella 26-P)Sassuolo 1 (Politano 22) Napoli 1 (Rogerio 80-og)Juventus 3 (Dybala 8, Cuadrado 79, Khedira 87) Milan 1 (Bonucci 28)  POINTS TABLETeams P W D L GD PtsJuventus 30 25 3 2 54 78Napoli 30 23 5 2 44 74Roma 30 18 6 6 26 60Inter 29 16 10 3 29 58Lazio 30 17 6 7 34 57Milan 29 15 5 9 7 50