Ronaldo Scores As Juventus Extend Winning Run
By Nigel Philip
Juventus beat Udinese Calcio 2-0 at the Dacia Arena on Saturday to extend their 2018/19 Serie A unbeaten run.
Goals from Rodrigo Bentancur and Cristiano Ronaldo led Massimiliano Allegri’s men over Julio Velázquez‘s Little Zebras.
It was Juventus’ eighth win of the season, which meant they have 24 points; nine points above second-placed Napoli, who play at home to Sassuolo on Sunday.
But even more impressively, Ronaldo scored his fourth goal of the season, on an evening where the ‘world’s most popular player’ was booed from the stands with his every move.
Miralem Pjanic found himself unmarked on the edge of the box but dragged a shot wide of the right post in the 20th minute.
Joao Cancelo swung the ball deep into the box in the 33rd minute and found Rodrigo Bentancur, who headed past the goalkeeper into the right side of the post.
Goalkeeper Simone Scuffet thwarted Mario Mandzukic’s shot with a fine save in the 37th minute, and Cristiano Ronaldo doubled the lead for the visitors seconds later with a left-footed thunderbolt to Mandzukic’s pass into the bottom right corner.
Udinese’s Kevin Lasagna registered the hosts' first real chance in the 50th minute when he connected with an accurate pass inside the box to fire narrowly wide.
A sweet pass found Federico Bernardeschi on the edge of the box in the 70th minute, and he drilled the ball towards the bottom right corner, but Simone Scuffet pulled off a brilliant save at the last second to stop the ball from hitting the right bottom corner.
Mario Mandzukic met a cross in the box, two minutes later, found space for a shot, but produced an inaccurate effort wide of the left post.
The crowd kept jeering at Ronaldo but the Portuguese icon looked unconcerned as he proved dangerous with his every move. And he nearly scored with one of such moves in the 74th minute when he forced a good save from Scuffet with a tremendous shot towards the middle of the goal.
Mario Mandzukic showed off an amazing technique to get to the edge of the box by himself in the 86th minute but sent the ball onto the crossbar.
