Juventus won the Serie A title for the ninth consecutive season after goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Federico Bernardeschi earned a 2-0 victory at home against Sampdoria.
Ronaldo opened the scoring in the halftime shot of a clever free kick routine, shooting to the bottom corner of Miralem Pjanic’s ball in the box. It was a welcome advance for Juve, who had struggled to face stubborn opponents.
Samp had plenty of opportunities to spoil the hosts’ party, with Wojciech Szczesny saving Fabio Quagliarella’s tame shot in the first half. Lorenzo Tonelli and Gastón Ramírez failed to take full advantage of the lead opportunities, and Juventus punished them in the middle of the second half.
Ronaldo’s shot was spilled by Emil Audero, allowing Bernardeschi to stir the ball home. The winger’s first goal of the season gave Maurizio Sarri a side break, with Szczesny producing a point-blank save to fend off Quagliarella’s header. Claudio Ranieri’s Samp kept pressing, even after midfielder Morten Thorsby was sent off for picking up two yellow cards.
However, Maurizio Sarri’s team held firm and won their first league title from their manager. Ronaldo had a late opportunity to score his 32nd goal in the league of the season, but removed his crossbar penalty. He falls three behind Ciro Immobile, who hit a hat-trick while straight won 5-1 in Verona.
The Italian is now at the level of Robert Lewandowski in the major leagues in Europe, and has two games to beat Gonzalo Higuain’s 36-year record. Joaquin Correa and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic were also targeted by the visitors.
Elsewhere, Lecce fell 2-0 in five minutes at Bologna but he rallied to 2-2, only to have Musa Barrow score a final winner for the hosts. Lecce remains four points from safety with two games remaining.
Jordan Veretout scored twice, including an 87-minute winner, as Rome hit Fiorentina 2-1 to tighten his grip in fifth place. Stefano Okaka’s first goal earned Udinese a 1-0 victory at Cagliari.
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