CompetitionsItaly Serie A

Cristiano Ronaldo marks his return with a brace as Juventus beat Spezia

Xenia Sport

Cristiano Ronaldo marked his return to action by stepping off the bench to score twice in a 4-1 Serie A win for Juventus at Spezia.


Ronaldo, who was forced to miss Juve’s previous four matches after testing positive for Covid-19 in October, scored three minutes after coming on to give his side a second-half lead.

The Portuguese completed the scoring with a Panenka-style penalty as Juve moved up to second in the table.

Spezia’s Tommaso Pobega had cancelled out Alvaro Morata’s opener for Juve in the first half before Ronaldo rounded the goalkeeper to restore his side’s lead in the 59th minute.

Adrien Rabiot put Juve 3-1 up and Ronaldo added his second from the spot in the 76th minute after Federico Chiesa had been fouled.

Juve stay four points behind leaders AC Milan, for whom Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck an acrobatic winner as they beat Udinese 2-1.

Ibrahimovic set up Franck Kessie for Milan’s first-half opener and scored their winner with a close-range overhead kick after Rodrigo De Paul had equalised for the home side from the spot early in the second half.

Lazio made it back-to-back Serie A wins as Ciro Immobile and Felipe Caicedo both scored deep into stoppage time to clinch them a 4-3 win at Torino.

Bremer headed Torino level after Andreas Pereira’s first-half opener for Lazio and Andrea Belotti’s penalty put the hosts 2-1 ahead at half-time.

Lazio equalised through Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s free-kick and after Sasa Lukic had appeared to fire Torino’s late winner, Immobile converted a penalty against his former club in the fifth minute of added time before Caicedo’s dramatic winner.

Related Articles

Back to top button