Juventus closing in on 7th straight Serie A title

Can anyone stop Juventus now?

The defending champions took a decisive step toward winning a seventh straight Serie A title by beating Atalanta and now lead Napoli by four points — a significant cushion going into the final 10 matches of the season.

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri isn’t taking anything for granted, however.

“We mustn’t start thinking the scudetto is in the bag,” Allegri said. “We are in the decisive stage of the season, but we must take it one step at a time, keep calm and replenish our mental energy because you have to raise the bar in every game.

“Napoli is right up there behind us and we need lots of points to win the title.”

The players are in tune with their coach, publicly at least, with midfielder Blaise Matuidi saying the title race is “absolutely not” over.

However, it is hard to see the Bianconeri slipping up from here.

As well as having the best attack in the league, Juventus also has the best defense — having coped well with the departure of key defender Leonardo Bonucci to AC Milan in the offseason.

Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Atalanta was the ninth consecutive league match in which Juventus has kept a clean sheet. It has conceded only once since a 3-2 defeat at Sampdoria on Nov. 19.

Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini embraced after combining to prevent a goal — just as they did in the Champions League victory over Tottenham.

“Every situation has to be experienced with emotion and it’s wonderful to see Buffon and Chiellini like that, after everything they’ve won,” Allegri said. “It means they’ve still got the same hunger.

“This team has pleasure in defending and that’s a crucial part of the sport.”

One of Juve’s advantages as the season reaches a climax is the strength in depth of its squad — something which Napoli does not have.

Allegri added: “What’s most important is that on Sunday we made five or six changes to the side from the previous match and we did the same again today, but the result didn’t change. We want to go all the way together.”

Juventus visits Spal on Saturday. Napoli will play Genoa a day later.

Napoli hasn’t won the Italian league since Diego Maradona led the club to its only two championships in 1987 and 1990, but is taking heart from the fact that Juventus has a tough final run-in which sees the Bianconeri visit Inter Milan and Roma, after the match between the two on April 22.

“Napoli won’t give up in the slightest,” said the southern team’s captain, Marek Hamsik. “We have to believe in ourselves right until the end.

“There’s still the direct meeting, and then Juventus has two tricky trips at the end. Certainly anything can happen. We still have a chance, there are so many points at stake and so many matches.”