Cristiano Ronaldo was on target as Juventus earned a 2-0 victory over AS Roma on Saturday to leapfrog their opponents and move into third place in the Serie A standings.
A day after turning 36, the Portuguese scored his first goal in four league games to give Juve the lead in the 13th minute, drilling the ball into the bottom corner with his left foot.
Ronaldo then thought he had netted another with his right, but saw his powerful effort come off the underside of the crossbar, bounce down on the line and away from goal.
Roma did put some pressure on the hosts in the second half but could not find the killer chance, with an own goal by Roger Ibanez in the 69th sealing the win for Andrea Pirlo’s side.
A sixth victory in a row in all competitions moved Juve above Roma onto 42 points, two clear of their opponents and five behind leaders Inter Milan, who have played a game more.
“Sometimes you can play well, sometimes less well. The important thing is to bring home the result,” Pirlo said. “I don’t know if it was the best Juve tonight but it was a great Juve.”
Before Ronaldo’s double in the 2-1 win at Inter in the Coppa Italia semi-final, the first leg on Tuesday, three games without a league goal was something of drought by his high standards.
The forward had not gone four league games without scoring since 2017 when he was at Real Madrid, but the barren run was ended with a fine finish from the edge of the box.
Roma threatened on plenty of occasions, having 14 shots at goal compared to the home side’s three, but they did not seriously test goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. Ronaldo was ready to pounce to put the game to bed before Ibanez got there first, poking Dejan Kulusevski’s squared pass into his own net.
Elsewhere, Torino came from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 in a thriller at Atalanta.
When Luis Muriel scored his 12th league goal of the season after 21 minutes to put his side 3-0 up, seventh-placed Atalanta looked to be on course for a comfortable win.
However, goals from Andrea Belotti and Bremer got the visitors back in the game before halftime.
It appeared the comeback would not be completed, however, as Torino struggled to find an equaliser until substitute Federico Bonazzoli popped up with an 84th-minute goal to snatch a point. Struggling Spezia shocked Sassuolo with a 2-1 away victory, secured by an Emmanuel Gyasi winner in the 78th minute.
