The five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo on Saturday inspired Juventus to a 2-1 win over Sampdoria in Italian Champions’ last Serie A game in 2018. On Saturday, CR7 scored twice in Juve’s win over Sampdoria and in the process took his tally to 49 goals for 2018.
The Serie A giants have ridden on a healthy contribution from Ronaldo as they finished 2018 with 53 points before the winter break. Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juve in a summer transfer window from La Liga giants Real Madrid and after going goalless for his first four appearances for Old Lady, the Portugal star netted 15 times for the Italian Champions in all the competitions.
During Juventus’ game against Sampdoria, CR7 broke yet another record. With the help of his first goal that he scored within two minutes in the game, Ronaldo surpassed Rui Barrios to become the highest-scoring Portuguese in a single Serie A season.
In the 1988-89 season, Barrios had set this record when he scored 12 goals for Juventus. Surprisingly, CR7 took just half of the season to break Barrios’ record. On Saturday night, Ronaldo also scored Juventus’ 100th goal in the year.
With the help of CR7’s goal, Juventus also broke a few records including that of new points in Serie A before the three-week winter break.
In the ongoing season, Juve have collected a record 53 points after 19 matches, having won 17 of their league games and losing none. Juventus have now also equalled Torino’s record of collecting 101 points in a calendar year.