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.
Juventus was struggling to break Spezia down until Ronaldo was brought on as a substitute in the 56th minute. He put Juventus 2-1 up three minutes later and also converted a penalty to seal the result for the Bianconeri.
“We had a good game, we should have been more clinical in the first half and finished off the match sooner,” Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said.
“Then we did well when we came back out in the second half, with the desire to win the match, and Cristiano gave us a hand.”
Juventus moved second, four points below early leader AC Milan, which won 2-1 at Udinese thanks to a late winner from Zlatan Ibrahimovi?. Napoli or Sassuolo can move to within two points of Milan if either win in their head-to-head meeting later.
Ronaldo started from the bench against Spezia with Ãlvaro Morata again replacing 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.
Morata did have a goal ruled out for offside shortly after and Spezia drew level when Tommaso Pobega's effort was deflected in.
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 into 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.