Juventus 2 Carpi 0: Hernanes, Zaza on target as champions march on

Serie A champions Juventus continued their incredible form with a 2-0 victory at home to Carpi on Sunday, sealed by Hernanes’ first-half strike and Simone Zaza’s late header.

Napoli’s defeat at Roma on Monday handed Juventus their fifth successive league title and Massimiliano Allegri’s men brushed relegation-threatened Carpi aside comfortably.

Hernanes gave Juve the lead shortly before half-time with a neat finish from outside the box and substitute Zaza made sure of the points with a header that floated into the far corner.

Carpi battled hard but were unable to seriously test Juve’s veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and they remain three points above the Serie A relegation zone.

Victory means Juve have now won 25 of their last 26 games in Serie A, taking maximum points from their last 10 league fixtures. 

Juve also extended their club record to 10 successive home clean sheets in the league, becoming the first team to go so long without conceding at home in Serie A since Empoli in 1987.

Paul Pogba had the champions’ first sight of goal after five minutes but Carpi goalkeeper Vid Belec tipped his effort around the post.
 
Juve continued to probe and Alvaro Morata, starting up front in place of Paulo Dybala, flashed a header wide from Alex Sandro’s cross after 14 minutes.
 
Simone Verdi then raced onto a throughball by Marco Crimi but Buffon thrust out his right leg to make a fine save.
 
Juve were struggling to find their rhythm due to Carpi’s energetic pressing but Daniele Rugani almost opened the scoring after 31 minutes, his header from Juan Cuadrado’s free-kick narrowly clearing the crossbar.
 
Carpi had previously kept back-to-back clean sheets for the first time in Serie A, but their resistance was broken by Juve after 41 minutes.
 
Hernanes opened the scoring by finding the bottom corner from 20 yards, beating an unsighted Belec, and celebrated his first goal for the club with a backflip.

Verdi went close from a free-kick after 53 minutes as Carpi, unbeaten in their last three league games, pushed for an equaliser.

Substitute Filippo Porcari hit the side-netting after 76 minutes with a viciously swerving long-range strike, before Mario Mandzukic bundled a cross wide at the back post.

Zaza added gloss to the scoreline for Juve with 11 minutes to go by rising highest in the box to flick Pogba’s cross into Belec’s net to kick off the champions’ party.