Rome: Juventus maintained their three point lead at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win at Atalanta on Sunday as Gianluigi Buffon made a new clean sheet record in the league's three-points-for-a-win era.
Andrea Barzagli's 24th minute tap-in and a wonderful individual goal from Mario Lemina four minutes from the end was enough for the reigning champions, who move up to 64 points and hold second-placed Napoli at bay after Maurizio Sarri's side briefly drew level with Saturday's convincing 3-1 win over Chievo.
Juve equal their club record of nine matches without conceding a goal, and Buffon, who now hasn't conceded in 836 minutes and had very little to do against an Atalanta side that hasn't won since early December, is edging closer to the all-time Serie A record of 929 minutes established by AC Milan stopper Sebastiano Rossi in 1993/94.
AC Milan's slim hopes of qualifying for the Champions League took a huge blow after Alfred Duncan's first half piledriver and Nicola Sansone's close range finish with 18 minutes left condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at Europa League-chasing Sassuolo, who had to play the last 13 minutes with 10 men when Gregiore Defrel was sent off for two silly fouls on Andrea Bertolacci and Juraj Kucka.
Sinisa Mihajlovic's side stay in sixth on 47 points and are now nine behind Roma, who took charge of the race for third by hammering Fiorentina 4-1 on Friday night.
Milan will find themselves four behind fifth-placed local rivals Inter Milan should the latter beat struggling Palermo in Sunday's late match.
Frosinone kept their Serie A survival chances alive with a comfortable 2-0 win over Udinese thanks to a low 12th-minute drive from Daniel Ciofani and Leonardo Blanchard's bullet header just before the hour mark.
Roberto Stellone's side stay third-from-bottom in the drop zone but are now just a point behind Palermo and four away from Udinese, who have only won twice in 2016 and were overtaken by Genoa thanks to a smart Luca Rigoni strike four minutes into their match with out-of-form Empoli.
Genoa move level on 31 points with city rivals Sampdoria, who eased their own relegation fears with a 3-0 hammering of rock-bottom Verona on Saturday evening.
Second-from-bottom Carpi's hopes of staying up were hit hard by Frosinone's win and their own goalless draw at Bologna, which leaves them six points from safety.
Ciro Immobile missed a first half penalty as mid-table Torino drew 1-1 with Lazio in Sunday's early game.
Andrea Belotti had already opened the scoring for the home side with a 12th minute tap-in when Italy hopeful Immobile blasted over nine minutes later, and Lucas Biglia punished that miss with a spot kick of his own in the 78th minute.
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