Rome, March 23 (IANS): Carlos Tevez scored the sole goal to help Juventus beat Genoa 1-0 and extend their 14-point advantage over Roma in Italian Serie A on Sunday.

The second placed Roma also snatched a 1-0 victory at Cesena to avoid being taken over by third placed Lazio, which are just one point trailing, Xinhua reported.

Tevez, who also had a penalty saved at Juventus Stadium, scored the winning goal through a magnificent finish to increase his tally to a league-leading 16 goals in the season. It was also the Argentina forward's 24th goal in all competitions, following a double in Wednesday's 3-0 win at Dortmund, which sent Juventus through to the Champions League quarterfinals.

Daniele De Rossi fired Roma to its first league victory in six matches as it remained a point ahead of city rival Lazio, which beat Hellas Verona 2-0.

Sampdoria leapfrogged Napoli into fourth with a 1-0 win over Inter Milan. Napoli drew 1-1 at home to 10-man Atalanta, while Fiorentina also dropped points in the race for a Champions League spot, drawing 2-2 at Udinese after two goals in as many minutes from Mario Gomez.

Parma lost 2-0 to Torino while Empoli beat Sassuolo 3-1 for a club record eighth match unbeaten.

Atalanta moved five points off the drop zone.