MILAN: Juventus remained firmly on course for a third straight Serie A title after beating Fiorentina 1-0 on Sunday to provisionally extend its lead at the top of the standings to 14 points.

Second-placed Roma has played two games less and travels later to Napoli, which trails its opponent by six points.

Kwadwo Asamoah scored a brilliant goal three minutes from halftime to give Juventus the lead.

Unlike the first match this season where Juventus squandered a two-goal lead against Fiorentina to lose 4-2 — its only league defeat this campaign — the Bianconeri held on to record its 14th home league victory. It has a perfect record at the Juventus Stadium this season.

Inter Milan is only a point behind fourth-placed Fiorentina after beating Torino 1-0. Parma, which has a game in hand, is a point further back following its 2-0 victory over Hellas Verona.

Lazio lost 1-0 at home to Atalanta in a match, which saw Antonio Candreva sent off for two bookings.

At the other end of the table, Livorno wasted a two-goal lead to lose a relegation battle 4-2 at Sampdoria.

Elsewhere, it was: Chievo 2, Genoa 1; and Bologna 0, Sassuolo 0.

It was the first of three matches in less than two weeks between Juventus and Fiorentina as they meet in the Europa League.

Asamoah gave Fiorentina warning of what was to come with a deflected volley which Neto did brilliantly to turn around for a corner with a desperate one-handed save.

The resulting corner eventually came back out to Asamoah but his low drive was just past the far post.

Juventus broke the deadlock when Asamoah cut in from the left and carved out space between four Fiorentina defenders before unleashing a stunning effort which took a slight deflection before going in off the inside of the far post.

Fiorentina thought it had leveled three minutes after the break but Modibo Diakite’s effort was ruled out for a tight offside decision.

Mario Gomez had a clear chance on the hour mark when he was left unmarked at the far post but the Germany striker, who is still not back to his best following five months out with injury, headed a cross wide.

Fiorentina was improving and went closest 11 minutes from time when substitute Ryder Matos headed off the crossbar shortly after coming off the bench.

Inter is sneaking up on Fiorentina after picking up only its third win in 2014 and stretching its unbeaten run to five.

Inter dominated and took a deserved lead in bizarre circumstances as Rodrigo Palacio appeared to be trying to nod Esteban Cambiasso’s cross back across the face of goal but it went in at the far post.

Parma and Verona were level on points at the start of the match and knew the victor would boost its hopes of qualifying for the Europa League.

Jonathan Biabiany got a decisive touch to deflect Massimo Gobbi’s snap shot into the net off the inside of the right post in the 20th.

Parma sealed the result in stoppage time as Antonio Cassano stole the ball off Verona goalkeeper Rafael and, although his curling shot crashed off the post, Ezequiel Schelotto was on hand to follow up.

Livorno appeared to be heading for all three points after a double from Ibrahima Mbaye had given it a two-goal lead at halftime.

However, Sampdoria was level eight minutes after the break.

First, Francesco Bardi pulled off a good save to parry Roberto Soriano’s effort but halftime substitute Nenad Krsticic bundled in the rebound and four minutes later Livorno defender Federico Ceccherini put the ball into his own net.

Stefano Okaka and Manolo Gabbiadini sealed the result.

Livorno is now two points off safety following Bologna’s draw against bottom club Sassuolo.

Chievo moved three points clear after a dramatic finale against Genoa.

Former Genoa striker Alberto Paloschi scored two penalties, one in the fifth minute and the winner in stoppage time, minutes after Alberto Gilardino had leveled for Genoa.