After scoring his first free-kick goal for Juventus in, Cristiano Ronaldo admitted that he had been “waiting” eagerly for this. Ronaldo’s goal came in Juventus 4-1 victory over Turin in Serie A on Saturday at the empty Allianz Stadium.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we deserved to win, we played well. Our goal has been concretized, we can put pressure on Lazio. My goal? I was waiting to score on a free-kick, I’m happy, but it’s important to win regardless of who scores. We are improving as a team, that’s what matters,” the club’s official website quoted Ronaldo as saying.
Since joining the Italian giants in 2018 from Real Madrid, the Portuguese veteran took a total of 43 attempts to break the free-kick goal drought with the Old Lady.
With that effort, the 35-year-old achieved the record of becoming the first Juventus player to score 25 goals this season in 59 years. Legendary Omar Sivori had done the it last in 1960-61 season.
Meanwhile, Serie A table-toppers Juventus, on the other hand, continued to wreak havoc and defeated Torino to extend their lead at the top by seven points.
Ronaldo was joined by Paulo Dybala, Juan Cuadrado and Koffi Djidji (own goal) on the scoresheet at the empty Allianz Stadium.
The home team wasted little time to resume their business as Argentine forward Dybala gave them the lead in just the third minute of the match with an excellent individual effort. Cuadrado doubled the lead in the 29th minute when he saw the back of the net after Ronaldo did all the hard work and laid the ball for him.
The visitors, though, put one back moments before the half-time break when Andrea Belotti converted a penalty in the sixth minute of the stoppage time.
However, the Old Lady did not allow Torino to gain momentum as they extended their lead, thanks to the impeccable free-kick from the Ronaldo.
The home team were not done and inflicted further embarrassment into Torino when touring defender Koffi Djidji put the ball into his own net.