Del Piero's double takes Juve clear

Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero celebrates after scoring against Siena. Del Piero scored twice as Juve won 3-0 at home to lowly Siena to take sole ownership of top spot in Serie A and increase the pressure on title rivals AC Milan.

Alessandro Del Piero scored twice as Juventus won 3-0 at home to lowly Siena to take sole ownership of top spot in Serie A and increase the pressure on title rivals AC Milan.

Victory over the troubled Tuscans enabled Juve to go three points clear of AC Milan, who play later on Sunday against city rivals Inter Milan.

Del Piero scored with an audacious back-heeled goal and a coolly struck penalty either side of a powerful header from Brazilian midfielder Emerson.

Palermo improved their chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League with a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Roma, courtesy of second-half goals from Marco Brienza and Luca Toni.

The Sicilians' eighth home victory left them in sixth place, but saw them close the gap on third-placed Sampdoria - 1-0 winners at Brescia on Saturday - to just two points.

Bottom club Atalanta, who already look doomed, came from behind three times to earn a 3-3 draw away to Cagliari, while Lazio eased their relegation fears with a 2-0 home win against strugglers Parma.

In other matches, Lecce and Reggina both sneaked 1-0 wins at home to Messina and Chievo respectively and Livorno drew 0-0 away to Bologna.

In Turin, Juve's Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved was ruled out after being knocked unconscious in Tuesday's 1-0 Champions League defeat away to Real Madrid, while French striker David Trezeguet failed to recover from the virus that forced him to miss the game in Spain.

Manuele Blasi came in for Nedved and Uruguayan forward Marcelo Zalayeta replaced Trezeguet.

Juventus dominated the early exchanges at the Delle Alpi stadium with Del Piero at the heart of every attack, but Siena always looked dangerous on the counter-attack.

After Tore Andre Flo and Rodrigo Taddei had gone close for the visitors, Juventus broke the deadlock with a lightning break.

Zalayeta slipped the ball through the legs of Francesco Colonnese wide on the right before crossing from the byline for Del Peiro, whose cheeky flick flashed past Alex Manninger in the Siena goal.

The visitors fell further behind soon after the break when Emerson rose to head home Mauro Camoranesi's right-wing corner and Del Piero completed the scoring from the spot in the 63rd minute after Emerson was brought down in the box.

In Saturday's other match, Udinese failed to improve on fifth place after drawing 2-2 at Fiorentina.