Juventus lead 1-0 against Calgiari after Paul Pogba scored in first-half stoppage time on his return from injury.
The Bianconieri started brightly with Pogba almost getting on the scoresheet immediately after latching onto Roberto Pereyra's pass, but the French midfielder dragged his shot wide.
However, the Sicilians almost struck the first blow as they try to avoid the drop to Serie B, with Diego Farias bringing an early stop out of stand-in keeper Marco Storari.
Juve continued to show guile in attack and almost forged an opening when the recalled Simone Padoin linked up with Kingsley Coman before the forward fired wide.
On 16 minutes, Pogba came close to breaking the deadlock when his low shot was saved by Zeljko Brkic, before the Cagliari keeper also stopped an effort from Romulo midway through the half.
Padoin then brought another stop out of the Serbian before Coman fired over late in the half as Juve looked to be going in at the interval on level terms.
However, Pogba gave the Champions League semi-finalists the lead in injury time as his shot from the edge of the box proved too much for Brkic.
Chris O'Keefe
