Cristiano Ronald scored a brace on Monday to help Juventus beat Lazio in Serie A. The win has taken Juventus on the verge of winning their ninth straight Italian league title .
The Old Lady strengthened their hold of the top spot. With 80 points from 34 matches, they can now win the title on Thursday against lowly Udinese, or on Sunday at home against Sampdoria, depending on their rivals’ results this week.
Meanwhile, at the Allianz Stadium on Monday, both the team had some genuine chances to go up in the first half. After Felipe Caicedo came close to score for the tourists, Juventus’ Alex Sandro had hit thr woodwork with his header.
Juvetus took the lead on Monday after the half-time break when Ronaldo converted a penalty in the 51st minute when a Bastos handball was confirmed by VAR.
His second came three minutes later when Paulo Dybala fed him a tap-in after a blunder from Luiz Felipe allowed the Argentine to get the possession of the ball.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner missed the chance to score a hat-trick as his header hit the crossbar in the 66th minute.
However, Lazio restored some pride as Ciro Immobile scored from the 12 yards spot in the 81st minute after Juventus centre-back Leonardo Bonucci had fouled him.
With the double, the 35-year-old Portuguese took his tally of the season to 30. His overall numbers in a Juventus shirt reached 50, making him the only player to score a half-century of goals in English Premier League, La Liga and Serie A each.
He is now eyeing to become the first player to finish a season as the highest scorer in three of Europe’s top five leagues after already achieveing the feat in Premier League and La Liga.
On the other hand, Lazio, who were once considered as a title-contender this season, have dropped to fourth. After Serie A resumed following the COVID-19 hiatus, only a point separated them from Juventus, while now they are 11 points adrift of the table-toppers.