Cristiano Ronaldo back with a bang; scores brace on return

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring against Spezia Calcio during their Italian League match yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

Cristiano Ronaldo came off the bench to score a brace on his return from CVOID-19 as Juventus got back to winning ways with a 4-1 victory in Serie A against promoted Spezia Calcio on Sunday.

Ronaldo replaced Paulo Dybala in the 56th minute in Cesena with the match level after Tommaso Pobega had cancelled out Alvaro Morato's opener for Juventus. But the Portuguese striker put Juve in front just three minutes later.

Juve hit winning ways

Adrien Rabiot grabbed a third on 68 minutes, with Ronaldo scoring a second from the penalty spot with 15 minutes to go for his fifth goal in three league games this season. The champions ended a run of three consecutive draws to move second in Serie A, four points behind leaders AC Milan.

The nine-time defending champions had won their opener against Sampdoria in September, their only victory on the pitch in Serie A this season, before three draws. Between those matches they were awarded a 3-0 victory after Napoli refused to travel to Turin on October 4 because of COVID-19 cases. Ronaldo missed four games for Juventus including the midweek 2-0 Champions League defeat against Barcelona in Turin.

AC Milan beat Udinese 2-1

Meanwhile, AC Milan extended their unbeaten streak as Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an acrobatic late winner to seal a 2-1 win over Udinese. Ibrahimovic, 39, has scored seven goals in four league games having missed the other two after contracting COVID-19. "Mine was a good goal but the victory of the team counts more," said Ibrahimovic. "It was a difficult match, we showed that in difficult moments the team works well together. We are among the youngest teams in Europe, I take the blame for raising the average age, but they all make me feel younger."

Keep scrolling to read more news

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever