Adrien Rabiot Fires Europe-Chasing Juventus Past Sampdoria, Roma's Top Four Hopes Dented

Adrien Rabiot made sure Juventus continued their charge towards European football with a decisive brace in his team's hard-fought 4-2 Serie A win over struggling Sampdoria. France midfielder Rabiot put Juve two ahead with a first-half header and then smashed them back in front in the 64th minute after Samp had stunned the home crowd by levelling before the break with two rapid-fire goals from Tommaso Augello and Filip Djuricic.

Youngster Matias Soule nodded home in stoppage time to make the scoreline more flattering against Samp who are bottom and 12 points from safety.

Rabiot almost left Juve in the summer but has become a key figure in Massimiliano Allegri's team, his double taking his league tally to seven and moving the Turin giants to within four points of the European places.

"We need to concentrate more for the whole match and not get distracted just because we scored two goals and were more comfortable," said Rabiot to DAZN.

"We needed to win to prepare well for Freiburg. I'm happy to be scoring so many goals here, let's hope I can get some more between now and the end of the season."

Juventus, in seventh on 38 points, are contesting a 15-point penalty for illicit transfer activity and as it stands they would be second should their appeal be successful.

They would still be a whopping 15 points behind champions-elect Napoli but given the inconsistent form of Serie A's other top clubs they would be a strong bet to reach next season's Champions League.

Missing a host of big names, including Paul Pogba who suffered yet another injury during Sunday morning's training session, Juve looked set for a cruise against a similarly depleted Samp when headers from Bremer and Rabiot had them two in front midway through the