MILAN (AFP) - Juventus romped to a 3-0 win over nine-man Roma on Sunday to end the visitors' unbeaten run in the league this season and extend their lead in Serie A to eight points.
High-flying Roma came to Turin confident of taking at least a share of the spoils in a bid to close the gap to Antonio Conte's leaders and to protect their unbeaten streak after 17 games.
However the early spark shown by Rudi Garcia's men fizzled out quickly and any kind of fightback from going 2-0 down in the 48th minute looked slim after Daniele De Rossi and Leandro Castan were sent off late in the second half.
Juve's 16th win of the campaign left them top on 49 points, eight ahead of Roma and 13 ahead of Napoli ahead of their home game against Sampdoria on Monday when the rest of the programme will resume.
Roma started brightly and alerted Gianluigi Buffon in the Juve goal after just six minutes.
Captain Francesco Totti led the counter-attack after Leaonardo Bonucci had been dispossessed but when he laid off for Adem Ljajic his effort from a tight angle was thwarted by Giorgio Chiellini's superbly-timed sliding tackle.
Roma suffered a blow on 13 minutes when lively midfielder Miralem Pjanic was forced off with a sore knee.
Juve took full advantage of his absence and broke the deadlock two minutes later when Arturo Vidal chipped Morgan De Sanctis at his near post after Carlos Tevez had been given far too much time to set up the Chilean.
Pjanic returned immediately after and saw a low rasping shot turned away by Buffon after Gervinho had stumbled and missed the cutback.
De Sanctis timed a dive to perfection to deny Tevez after the Argentinian's mazy run through the defence while at the other end Buffon got down low to collect Kevin Strootman's shot before parrying Dodo's angled drive from outside the area.
Juve, however, soon settled and began a period of domination which saw several chances go amiss.
After Roma spurned a good free kick opportunity Vidal dispossessed Pjanic to counter and set up Tevez, only for Lichsteiner to head the striker's cross from the left waywards.
Paul Pogba's shot from Pirlo's short free kick was then blocked by traffic while Bonucci, at the far post, just failed to reach a drive across goal with his left foot while Fernando Llorente saw an angled drive float just over after Tevez's lay-off.
Juve resumed in similar fashion after Tevez narrowly missed from Pogba's cut-back Roma's defence was stunned when Bonucci ghosted in at the far post to slid Pirlo's sublime free kick past De Sanctis three minutes after the restart.
Roma created two half-chances but an alert Buffon came out to block Pjanic's deep cross for Strootman, while Totti was promptly pushed off the ball after being put through with a chance on goal.
Totti, who had added spice to the fixture with criticism of the club in previous days, was jeered off the pitch on his way to being replaced by Alessandro Florenzi.
With one elder statesman gone, Roma's chances looked slim but suffered another blow when Daniele De Rossi saw red on 75 minutes for a needless but vicious tackle on Chiellini.
Barely two minutes later he was followed by defender Leandro Castan, who was sent off for handball on the goalline, handing Juve a penalty which Mirko Vucinic, who had replaced Tevez on the hour, drove with ease past De Sanctis.
