体坛英语新闻：Juventus closer to Serie A title with win at Udinese

ROME, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Juventus moved one step closer to their third consecutive Italian Serie A title following their 2-0 win at Udinese on Monday.

Thanks to first-half goals from Sebastian Giovinco and Fernando Llorente, Juventus restored their eight-point gap at the top with five rounds left this season.

Giovinco, who made just his fourth league start this season, put the visitors ahead in the 16th minute when he met a pass from Paul Pogba and fired a left-footed shot past Udinese goalkeeper Simone Scuffet.

Juve made it 2-0 seconds later when Udinese failed to clear a corner and Llorente was there to smash the ball home from close range.

The Turin outfit failed to match their first-half standards after the interval, choosing instead to slow the pace of the game, though Giovinco almost had a second when he saw a shot rebound off the post.

Juventus head coach Antonio Conte was relieved as the encounter had been expected to be tricky.

"This is a place where we could have dropped points," he said. "Udinese are in great physical shape and wanted to pull off a result tonight."

"We did well tonight, it wasn't a simple game by any means. We approached it with the right attitude and focus," he said.