Juventus moves into third place after beating Cremonese

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TURIN, Italy (AP) — Juventus notched its highest score of the season in a 5-0 demolition of Cremonese that lifted it into third place in Serie A on Monday.

Juventus’ fifth win in six league games took the Turin giants to equal on points with Napoli and Roma but above both on goal difference.

Inter Milan led AC Milan by three points. The top two and defending champion Napoli have a game in hand.

Juventus took the lead after 12 minutes with the aid of a lucky strike. Gleison Bremer’s long-range shot took a deflection that left goalkeeper Emil Audero rooted to the spot.

Two minutes later Jonathan David made it two when he finished off Khéphren Thuram’s incisive counterattack.

Cremonese coach Davide Nicola was sent off for protesting a VAR decision not to award his side a penalty and his night got worse just moments later.

Juventus was awarded a penalty at the other end and though Audero tipped Kenan Yildiz’s spot kick on to the post, the Turkish international followed up to slot home the rebound and make it 3-0 before halftime.

Weston McKennie poked a fourth into the net two minutes into the second half although Filippo Terracciano was unfortunate to see his efforts on the goal-line marked down as an own goal.

McKennie made sure of his place on the scoresheet with a close-range header.

Cremonese, which has gone six games without a win, remained in 13th place.

Earlier, Genoa won for the first time in more than a month with a double from its Scandinavian pair cementing a 3-0 win over Cagliari.

Lorenzo Colombo scored the opener with seven minutes gone, sliding home a low shot after a nice through ball from Ruslan Malinovskyi.

Dane Morten Frendrup doubled the lead after 75 minutes and Norwegian center half Leo Skiri Østigård made it 3-0 just seconds later with a neat header.

It was Genoa’s first victory after a troubling run of three losses and two draws and lifted it into 15th place, above Cagliari on goal difference.

Both sides are five points clear of the relegation zone.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer