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Cristiano Ronaldo came off the bench to score a double on his return from the coronavirus as Juventus got back on the winning track in Serie A with a 4-1 win against promoted Spezia on Sunday.
The champions ended a streak of three consecutive draws to place third in Serie A, four points behind leaders AC Milan, who beat Udinese 2-1 earlier in the day thanks to a spectacular goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Sassuolo edged out Juventus to regain second place, two points behind Milan, after a 2-0 win over Napoli, their first win at Stadio San Paolo.
Ronaldo replaced Paulo Dybala in the 56th minute in Cesena with the draw after Tommaso Pobega disallowed Álvaro Morata’s first goal for Juventus.
But the Portuguese striker put Juve ahead just three minutes later.
Adrien Rabiot scored a third in the 68th minute, and Ronaldo scored a second from the penalty spot with 15 minutes remaining for his fifth goal in three league games this season.
“Cristiano is back. This is the important thing, ”said Ronaldo, who had been furious to miss Juventus’ 2-0 Champions League defeat at midweek against Lionel Messi’s Barcelona.
“They detained me for a long time even though I had no symptoms and felt fine. Today I have returned to doing what I like, playing football ”.
Ronaldo had been Covid positive for 19 days after a test while on duty with Portugal, missing four games.
The nine-time defending champions had won their first game against Sampdoria in September, their only league win on the field, before three draws.
Between those matches they were awarded a 3-0 victory after Napoli refused to travel to Turin on October 4 due to coronavirus cases.
Before Ronaldo took the field, Juventus had worked against newcomers from the top flight, Spezia.
Morata scored within a quarter of an hour off a Weston McKennie cross, but after seeing three goals disallowed for offside against Barca, he had another discarded nine minutes later.
But a deflected shot from Pobega that passed Gianluigi Buffon put Spezia level after half an hour.
Ronaldo ran to Morata’s pass before circling the goalkeeper and hitting the goal to put Juve in front.
Rabiot also came off the bench to score, with a foul on Federico Chiesa that gave Ronaldo a chance for a second goal in the 75th minute.
“In the second half we were well placed on the field with the desire to win and Ronaldo gave us a hand,” said coach Andrea Pirlo.
Ibrahimovic stunner
AC Milan extended their unbeaten streak when Ibrahimovic scored an acrobatic late winner to seal a victory over humble Udinese.
The 39-year-old has scored seven goals in four league games and has missed the other two after contracting Covid-19.
“Mine was a beautiful goal but the team’s victory counts more,” said Ibrahimovic.
The Swedish star prepared Franck Kessie for the opener after 18 minutes before Rodrigo de Paul tied Udinese three minutes after the break from the penalty spot, beating Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma on his return from the coronavirus.
But Ibrahimovic snatched all three points with seven minutes remaining, with an impressive bicycle kick that passed goalkeeper Juan Musso.
Ibrahimovic has already scored in six consecutive Serie A games, to equal a record he achieved with Milan in 2012.
In Naples, a Manuel Locatelli penalty just before time and a late goal from Maxime López gave Sassuolo the first victory over Napoli in five years.
“We could have done more. We were mediocre and frantic, ”said coach Gennaro Gattuso when fifth-placed Napoli lost the opportunity to move to second.
Roma are seventh after a 2-0 home win against Fiorentina with Leonardo Spinazzola and Pedro Rodríguez scoring in each half.
City rivals Lazio fought back to beat Torino 4-3 despite losing four minutes in injury time in Turin.
Lazio were 3-2 down before Ciro Immobile, returning from a Covid scare, converted a penalty, with Felipe Caicedo marking the winner three minutes later to knock down Torino who sits in the second bottom and has not won this one. season.
Sampdoria and Genoa settled for one point in a 1-1 draw in the derby.
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