Cristiano Ronaldo converted a first-half penalty as leaders Juventus resumed their Serie A campaign with a 2-0 win at Bologna on Monday, easing the pressure on manager Maurizio Sarri.
Ronaldo had missed a spot kick in a Coppa Italia match against AC Milan 10 days ago, but made no mistake in the 23rd minute against Bologna. Paulo Dybala curled in a fine second before halftime to give the Turin side a comfortable win.
Juventus, chasing a ninth successive title, extended their lead to four points over Lazio with 66 points from 27 games.
Juve's failure to score in two Coppa Italia games, coupled with their defeat on penalties to Napoli in Wednesday's final, raised questions over Sarri, who has struggled to impose his style of play in his first season at the club.
There were no questions about the Juventus defence, however, which kept a fourth straight clean sheet in all competitions.
"I think there's been too much talk, we have to square up and respond with facts like tonight," said defender Leonardo Bonucci.
"It's normal to talk about what happened after defeat, especially in a final. We had a discussion and traced a plan, which has been seen today."
After fielding Ronaldo in an unfamiliar centre-forward role against Napoli, Sarri returned the Portuguese to his more comfortable position wide of the centre.
Juve got the breakthrough when Stefano Denswil grabbed Matthijs de Ligt's shirt at a corner and Ronaldo drilled home his 22nd league goal of the season from the spot.
A clever backheel by Federico Bernardeschi set up the second for Dybala who curled one beyond goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski.
"We need confidence and this victory will help us," said Dybala.
"It's not easy to be brilliant right now, we hadn't been playing for a long time.
"If we had won the [Coppa Italia] final everyone would have complimented us, because on a tactical level we have had a great game, even if we were not brilliant, but we conceded little.
"Today we played a great game, even if after 2-0 we gave up a bit."
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
