MILAN: Cristiano Ronaldo marked his recovery from the coronavirus by scoring twice on his return to help Juventus beat newly promoted Spezia 4-1 in the Italian league on Sunday.
Ronaldo was brought on as a substitute in the 56th minute and he put Juventus 2-1 up three minutes later. He also converted a penalty to seal the result for the Bianconeri.
Juventus moved second, four points below early leader AC Milan which won 2-1 at Udinese thanks to a late winner from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Napoli or Sassuolo can move to within two points of Milan if either win in their head-to-head meeting later.
Ronaldo had been out for three weeks after testing positive for COVID-19 while on international duty. The Portugal forward missed three Juventus matches — draws with Crotone and Hellas Verona in Serie A as well as a loss to Barcelona in the Champions League.
Ronaldo started from the bench against Spezia and Álvaro Morata again replaced him in the starting lineup. Morata had three goals ruled out for offside against Barcelona on Wednesday and the flag was again raised when he fired in from Weston McKennie’s assist in the 14th minute, but this time video review came to his aid and the goal was given.
Ronaldo replaced Paulo Dybala early in the second half and he had an immediate impact when he ran onto Morata’s through-ball, rounded the goalkeeper and scored with an empty net.
Fellow substitute Adrien Rabiot extended Juve’s lead and the Bianconeri were awarded a penalty when Paolo Bartolomei tripped up Federico Chiesa.
Ronaldo stepped up and cheekily chipped the spot kick into the back of the net.
Ibra magic
Ibrahimovic continued to roll back the years with an overhead kick seven minutes from time to snatch all three points for Milan, which extended its unbeaten run to 23 matches.
He also set up Franck Kessié’s opener. The 39-year-old Ibrahimovic, who recently recovered from the coronavirus, has now scored seven goals in his last four league matches.
Milan took the lead in the 18th minute with a superb team move. Udinese leveled early in the second half when Alessio Romagnoli fouled Ignacio Pussetto and Rodrigo De Paul converted the resulting penalty.
Just as the match appeared to be heading for a draw, Ibrahimovic reacted quickest in the area to acrobatically hook the ball into the back of the net.
Lazio win
Two stoppage-time goals saw Lazio snatch a 4-3 win at Torino. Torino thought it was heading for its first win this season when Saša Lukic put it 3-2 ahead with three minutes remaining but Ciro Immobile leveled from the spot five minutes into stoppage time and Felipe Caicedo managed to score in a goalmouth scramble. (AP)
