Fernando Llorente broke his league duck as Juventus pulled three points clear of Roma at the top of Italy's Serie A following a 2-0 win over Palermo on Sunday.

Chilean international Arturo Vidal broke the deadlock on 32 minutes when he lashed Carlos Tevez's smart layoff past Stefano Sorrentino and inside the 'keeper's far post.

A spell of Palermo pressure before then had Gianluigi Buffon on tenterhooks when Paulo Dybala's mazy run created space for Franco Vazquez to force the Juve 'keeper to tip the forward's drive over the crossbar.

However Vidal's opener had eased the pressure and on 64 minutes Llorente, who had seen Sorrentino collect an earlier header from further out, got his head to a corner from the right to secure Juve's seventh win of the campaign following their only slip-up in last week's 1-1 draw at Sassuolo.

Juve are now three points ahead of Roma following the Giallorossi's scoreless draw on Saturday at Sampdoria, who dropped to fourth after Antonio Di Natale inspired Udinese to a 2-0 win over Atalanta which sent the northerners the other way.

Di Natale opened the scoring in spectacular fashion, the veteran striker picking up the rebound from an intended pass into the area to smash the ball into Marco Sportiello's top right-hand corner.

Udinese grabbed their second on 36 minutes with Cyril Thereau scoring a brilliant individual effort.

The Frenchman dispossessed Giuseppe Biava in midfield and held off the centre-back before beating Sportiello with a looping shot that came just as he tumbled to ther ground.

When a defence-splitting pass found Di Natale in space minutes later, the striker just narrowly missed claiming his second when his lob dipped just over the crossbar and on to the top netting.

Di Natale came close again on the stroke of half-time when the striker's free kick went just over Sportiello's upright.

Resurgent Genoa, meanwhile, moved up to seventh place thanks to a 2-1 win over 10-man Chievo.

Chievo took a 36th minute lead through defender Ervan Zukanovic, but the match turned in Genoa's favour in the final 20 minutes.

Juventus and AC Milan reject Alessandro Matri had replaced Maxime Lestienne shortly after the restart and pulled the visitors level with a close-range header on 72 minutes.

A minute later, Ivan Radovanovic saw red for a foul in the area but Francesco Bardi did well to save Mauricio Pinilla's spot kick.

Genoa finally made their advantage pay six minutes from time, Pinilla nodding home an easy winner at the back post after Diego Perotti's cross from the right had been nodded into his path.

Milan can move up to third place with a win at home to Fiorentina in Sunday's late match. Elsewhere, Napoli host Verona, Torino are away to resurgent Lazio and Inter Milan are away to Cesena.