Carlos Tevez took his Serie A goals tally this season to 16 as Juventus opened up a 17-point gap on closest challengers Roma thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Genoa on Sunday.

Genoa travelled to Turin with faint hopes of taking a share of the spoils from the league leaders having handed Juve their only defeat of the season last October.

However Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin could do little to stop Tevez’s 25th minute strike from inside the area and despite stand-in keeper Eugenio Lamanna later stopping Tevez’s spot-kick, the hosts held on to record their 20th win of the campaign.

Tevez now leads fellow Argentinian Mauro Icardi of Inter Milan and AC Milan’s French winger Jeremy Menez in the race for Serie A’s capocannoniere (top scorer) award.

Icardi and Menez have both scored 15 goals, with the Inter striker in action later Sunday when the struggling Nerazzurri visit high-flying Sampdoria.

Less than a week after securing their place in the Champions League quarter-finals and a two-leg tie with Monaco, Juventus moved a step closer towards their fourth consecutive and 31st scudetto.

But coach Massimiliano Allegri told Sky Sport his season would only be complete if he steered the Turin giants into the last four in Europe’s premier club competition.

“Hats of to the lads, and to everyone at the club. We’re having a fantastic season. I want to finish it off in the best possible way by qualifying for the semi-finals,” said the Italian.

“That would be extraordinary, but football is full of surprises.

“Monaco are a side that are underestimated by everyone, so we’re expecting two totally different games to the ones we played against Borussia Dortmund (in the last 16).”

Rudi Garcia’s crisis-hit Roma side travel to Cesena later on Sunday looking to record only their second win in 11 games.

A slip-up could add significantly to Garcia’s woes, especially if city rivals Lazio — in third at only a point adrift ahead of their late home game with Verona — leapfrog them into second place.

After Roma’s 2-0 defeat at home by Sampdoria last week, dozens of the club’s hardline ‘ultra’ supporters surrounded players and demanded they remove their shirts because they were ‘undeserving’.

Several of Roma’s players, including Miralem Pjanic and Radja Nainggolan, were taken to task by disgruntled fans while walking in the Italian capital earlier this week.

Napoli, in fourth at three points behind Lazio, host Atalanta while Sampdoria and Fiorentina, one point further adrift in fifth and sixth, respectively host Inter and travel to Udinese.

On Saturday, Menez hit a brace including a controversial penalty as Milan broke a three-game winless run thanks to a 3-1 victory over Cagliari in a half-empty San Siro.

Milan hosted Zdenek Zeman’s league strugglers looking to get back to winning ways following draws with Chievo and Verona and a 2-1 defeat away to Fiorentina last week.

The pressure eased on embattled Rossoneri coach Filippo Inzaghi as Milan’s ninth win of the campaign moved them up to seventh place ahead of the remainder of the weekend fixtures.

“I’m happy for the team, we got less than we deserved from our performances against Verona and Fiorentina,” said Inzaghi.

“I was confident that if we played the way we did at Fiorentina, we would be rewarded.

“Now, we hope to keep on like this.”