Juventus thump Sassuolo as Gonzalo Higuain hits hat trick

Gonzalo Higuain scored a hat trick as Juventus romped to a 7-0 Serie A demolition of sorry Sassuolo at the Allianz Stadium.

Higuain netted all of his goals in the second half after Juventus had gone into the break four goals to the good.

Sami Khedira scored twice and goals from Alex Sandro and Miralem Pjanic helped to sink Sassuolo, who rarely provided a threat of their own.

Alex Sandro opened the scoring after nine minutes as Sassuolo failed to clear a corner and, following good work by Daniele Rugani, the ball came to the Brazilian who curled it past goalkeeper Andrea Consigli for his second goal of the season.

Sassuolo came back into the game but a spell of possession ended with a Juventus breakaway which saw Higuain force a corner that led to the second goal.

The near-post delivery from Pjanic was headed on by Alex Sandro and Khedira was unmarked at the far post to slot the ball in with 25 minutes gone.

A ball over the top from Pjanic a couple of minutes later saw Juventus add their third goal and a second for Khedira.

Pjanic's pass allowed the Germany international to spring the offside trap and when Consigli went down early to his left Khedira stroked the ball home across goal.

Gianluigi Buffon came to his side's rescue as he kept out a shot from Pol Lirola at the near post 10 minutes before half-time.

From the resulting corner Matteo Politano curled an effort just over as Sassuolo tried to hit back.

But shortly after Pjanic made it 4-0 as he fired home from the edge of the area when the ball landed in his path from a clearance.

Consigli parried away an effort from Federico Bernardeschi as Juventus started the second half in the same manner as they finished the first.

Higuain joined the scorers as he made it five with a shot from the edge of the area with 63 minutes on the clock.

The Argentine then netted his 16th Juventus goal of the season, beating the offside trap to collect a long ball and rounding the keeper before sliding home with a little over 15 minutes remaining.

Higuain grabbed his third with eight minutes to go as he latched on to Bernardeschi's fine pass and lifted the ball over the diving keeper from a narrow angle to add to Sassuolo's agony.