Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday stretched his scoring streak to nine consecutive league games with a penalty double as Serie A leaders Juventus bounced back from their defeat by SSC Napoli with a 3-0 win over ACF Fiorentina, whose owner said the result left him feeling “disgusted.”
Title rivals Inter and SS Lazio also got back to winning ways, with Romelu Lukaku and Ciro Immobile bagging a brace apiece for their respective teams to keep the pressure on the eight-time defending champions.
Juventus hold a three-point lead over second-placed Inter, who beat Udinese 2-0. Lazio are a further two points adrift, with a game in hand, after top-scorer Immobile and Felipe Caicedo both scored twice in a 5-1 thrashing of rock-bottom SPAL.
Photo: AP
Ronaldo slotted in his goals in either half in Turin, with defender Matthijs de Ligt heading in a third in stoppage-time.
Juventus had fallen to just their second defeat of the season the previous weekend at coach Maurizio Sarri’s former club Napoli.
Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso was furious at the penalty decisions that condemned his 14th-placed team to defeat.
“I am disgusted with what I saw today,” said the Italian-born US businessman, who bought the Tuscany club last year. “Juve are very strong, a team with a wage bill of 350 million doesn’t need help. Referees cannot decide matches. Today they gave two penalties against us, maybe the first was there, but the second certainly wasn’t.”
Juventus vice president Pavel Nedved hit back, declaring that he was “a bit fed up of these controversies.”
“Juve won with merit. Teams have to stop trying to look for excuses and accept defeat,” Nedved said.
Ronaldo, 34, slotted in the opener five minutes before halftime after German Pezzella’s handball was confirmed by VAR (video assistant referee).
His second came 10 minutes from time for a disputed Federico Ceccherini foul on Rodrigo Bentancur, making it 14 goals in nine games to take his tally to 19 in Serie A this season, including seven penalties.
He also became the first Juventus player to score in nine straight league games since David Trezeguet in December 2005.
The former Real Madrid player has now scored 50 goals in 70 games since moving to Juventus in 2018.
Ronaldo is second only in the goalscoring charts this season to Immobile, who has 25 goals after Lazio kept alive their push for a first scudetto since 1999-2000.
Immobile volleyed in on just three minutes, with Caicedo scoring a rebound less than quarter of an hour later.
Immobile’s second came before the half-hour mark and he then played a role in Caicedo’s second seven minutes before halftime.
Substitute Bobby Adekanye came on after the break, with the former Liverpool youngster tapping in his first Serie A goal.
“Caicedo, Immobile and [Joaquin] Correa are untouchable,” said Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi, whose side could move second when they play their postponed match against Hellas Verona tomorrow.
In Udine, Lukaku grabbed a brace to bring his tally to 16 league goals and get Antonio Conte’s side back on track after three consecutive 1-1 draws.
The former Manchester United striker collected Nicolo Barella’s pass and curled an excellent finish through the legs of Udinese defender Bram Nuytinck in the 64th minute He added a second from the penalty spot seven minutes later when Udinese goalkeeper Juan Musso rushed out to fell Alexis Sanchez in the penalty area.
“It’s a great fight at the top,” Lukaku said. “It’s important for us to be up there, too, as we have a huge clash with [AC] Milan coming up.”
Atalanta BC moved up to fourth, despite being held 2-2 by struggling Genoa, jumping ahead of AS Roma on head-to-head record.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed AC Milan’s game with flu, with the eighth-placed northerners held 1-1 by 10-man Hellas Verona.
Torino plunged further into crisis following the previous weekend’s seven-goal defeat to Atalanta with a 4-0 loss to US Lecce.
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