Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday hit back at his critics with a quick-fire hat-trick, as Juventus brushed aside Cagliari 3-1, five days after their Champions League elimination, while Inter moved nine points clear at the Serie A summit.
Portuguese star Ronaldo bore the brunt of the criticism for Juve’s latest European flop, after failing to score in either leg of the last-16 defeat by Porto, while also being partly at fault for what proved to be the goal which knocked them out.
But the 36-year-old scored a header in the 10th minute at the Sardegna Arena, added a second from the penalty spot 15 minutes later and completed a “perfect” treble on 31 minutes with a fine left-footed strike.
Photo: AFP
Defending champions Juventus are 10 points behind leaders Inter, who beat Torino 2-1, but with a game in hand.
Andrea Pirlo’s side pulled just one point behind second-placed AC Milan, whose title hopes took a big hit following a 1-0 home defeat to SSC Napoli.
“Our approach was spot on and it was important to get off on the right foot after being knocked out the other night,” Pirlo said.
“Ronaldo was angry, like the rest of the team. He reacted like a true champion,” he added.
Ronaldo is the leading scorer in Serie A with 23 goals this season, ahead of Inter’s Romelu Lukaku, who has 19.
His career tally is now 770 goals, overtaking Brazilian legend Pele’s 767 scored in official matches, which he matched earlier this month.
“Congratulations on breaking my record of goals in official matches,” Pele, 80, wrote on Instagram. “I admire you a lot, I love watching you play and this is no secret to anyone.”
“My only regret is not being able to give you a hug today,” he added.
Pele — the only player in history to win three World Cups — has claimed to have scored 1,283 goals in total, including in unofficial matches.
Before kick-off, Juventus chief football officer Fabio Paratici dismissed talk about Ronaldo’s future with the club.
“It makes me laugh. I would never have imagined discussing the value of Cristiano Ronaldo,” Paratici said.
“It’s a privilege to have him with us, he’s part of our future,” he added.
Lautaro Martinez scored a brilliant 85th-minute winner in a tight game against 18th-placed Torino to keep Inter on track for a first league title since 2010.
Antonio Conte’s Inter once again needed their strike duo of Lukaku and Martinez to find a way to win in Turin.
Christian Eriksen came off the bench on 56 minutes and had an immediate impact, playing a part in the move, which resulted in Torino defender Armando Izzo fouling Martinez in the penalty area.
Lukaku fired home the resulting spot-kick in the 62nd minute.
Inter looked to be wobbling when Antonio Sanabria pulled Torino level eight minutes later, finishing off goalmouth scramble, but Martinez snatched the victory, getting his head to an Alexis Sanchez cross for his 14th league goal this term.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier