Juventus have closed the gap at the top of the Serie A table back to just one point courtesy of a 3-1 victory over Hellas Verona at the Stadio Marc Antonio Bentegodi this evening.

Juve had slipped further behind Napoli courtesy of the leaders' 1-0 win over Crotone on Friday night, but they responded in kind as a brace from Paulo Dybala handed them all three points after Martin Caceres had earlier cancelled out Blaise Matuidi's opener against his former club.

The victory takes the champions six points clear of third-placed Inter Milan too following their draw with Lazio earlier in the day, whereas Verona remain 19th and are two points from safety.

It took the visitors only six minutes to break the deadlock when Gonzalo Higuain's strike hit the post and rebounded to Matuidi, who fired home the rebound to give Juventus a perfect start to the match.

Higuain came close again a little over 10 minutes later when he tried his luck with a free kick, but this time his effort flew narrowly past the upright.

It was the Argentine who continued to look the most likely to add to the scoring, though, and he squandered another chance to double his side's advantage with five minutes remaining of the first half when his header was kept out by Andrade Nicolas.

Juventus and Higuain looked as though they might live to rue those missed chances when Verona levelled things up shortly before the hour mark, with Caceres blasting a stunning strike past Wojciech Szczesny from range to end Juve's eight-match run of clean sheets.

It was the first goal Juventus had conceded in almost 800 minutes of action, but they were soon back on the front foot and regained their lead just 13 minutes later when Dybala swept his finish past the keeper after meeting a low cross inside the box.

It was Dybala's first Serie A goal in more than a month, but a second came just six minutes later when he squeezed another low finish into the corner after working space to shoot from inside the area.

The Argentine almost had a nine-minute hat-trick shortly afterwards when he sent a free kick towards the top corner, but Nicolas was equal to it.

Higuain did have the ball in the back of the net with only three minutes of normal time remaining, but his celebrations were cut short by the offside flag as Juventus were forced to settle for only a two-goal victory.

Verona (4-4-1-1): Andrade; Ferrari, Heurtaux, Caracciolo, Caceres (Pazzini, 78'); Romulo, Zuculini, Buchel, Verde; Bessa (Calvano, 88'); Keane (Zuculini, 82')

Juventus (4-3-3): Szczesny; Lichtsteiner (Barzagli, 74'), Benatia, Chiellini, Sandro; Khedira, Bentancur (Bernardeschi, 46'), Matuidi; Dybala, Higuain, Mandzukic (Marchisio, 81')