Gonzalo Higuaín’s tremendous start to 2018 continued on Friday evening as the Argentina centre forward brought up his 50 in Juventus colours in a 2-0 win over Fiorentina.

The 30-year-old, who has been absent from recent Argentina squads, looks set to be recalled by Jorge Sampaoli and could barely be in better form after marking his sixth goal in four games.

A fairly even first half provided the game’s major talking point as a VAR decision denied Fiorentina a penalty after Giorgio Chiellini had originally been deemed to have handled Marco Benassi’s cross.

However, shortly after the break Federico Bernardeschi gave Juve the lead against his former club with a curling free kick from the edge of the box.

86′ – GOALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!! @G_Higuain scores his 50th goal in Bianconero to make it 0-2 to Juventus!!!!!! ⚽⚽🏳🏴#FiorentinaJuve pic.twitter.com/FTqJuJUNV9

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) February 9, 2018

Juve were forced to weather the Fiorentina attacks and needed to ride their luck to keep a 15th clean sheet in their last 16 games but with four minutes remaining, the points were secured. Chiellini released Gonzalo Higuaín and the striker dashed clear to keep his composure and slot the ball past Marco Sportiello.

The goal was Higuaín’s 50th since joining Juventus in just 88 appearances making Pipita the tenth quickest to reach the milestone in the club’s history.

The result puts Juventus top of Serie A, at least overnight, as Napoli host Lazio on Saturday but few would bet against the Bianconeri lifting a seventh straight league title.