Ronaldo brace returns Juve to winning ways; Milan stay top

Cristiano Ronaldo was twice on target as Juventus bounced back from their first league loss of the season by beating Udinese 4-1 on Sunday to move up to fifth place.

The defending champions are 10 points adrift of league leaders Milan who in turn stay one point ahead of city rivals Inter after their 2-0 win over midtable Benevento despite playing an hour a man down.

Ronaldo opened the scoring with a trademark drive, after latching on to Aaron Ramsey’s pass in the 31st minute, before threading a perfect through ball into the path of Federico Chiesa to score Juve’s second goal four minutes into the second half.

The VAR had a busy evening in Turin. First, the referee was asked to consult the pitch-side monitor before ruling out what Udinese thought was the opener for a handball early on, before Aaron Ramsey suffered the same fate when he was penalised for handball, after a second look.

Ronaldo’s second goal put the result beyond any doubt as he took his goal tally to 14 league goals for the season -- two more than anyone else in Serie A -- in the 70th minute, with Marvin Zeegelaar scoring an injury-time consolation for Udinese.

There was still time for Paulo Dybala to score another goal for Juventus as Andrea Pirlo’s side moved 10 points behind leaders AC Milan, with a game in hand, while Udinese drop to 13th and are without a win in their last four games.

Pirlo admitted his team had initially struggled to make an impact as the players were still haunted by memories of their shock 3-0 defeat by Fiorentina in their final game before the winter break.

“We started frightened after the match against Fiorentina, we were afraid of the depth of the opponents,” Pirlo told Sky Sports.

“Little by little we grew up and in the second half we did better. It wasn’t the best Juventus.” Juventus thought they had again fallen behind when Rodrigo de Paul fired home from close range.

Udinese celebrated, but the referee was asked to look again at whether De Paul had handled earlier in the move, before the goal was ruled out.

Ronaldo then took centre stage with his emphatic first-half finish, an even better pass for Juve’s second and a fine third.

Welshman Ramsey thought he had scored his first goal of the season in the second half, but again it was ruled out for handball.

Dybala’s injury-time strike completed a flattering scoreline for Juventus, given Udinese had hit the woodwork twice in the match and missed numerous other chances.

“Dybala ... was explosive,” added Pirlo.

“He played one of the best games this year, he was more alive and eager and slowly he will find the best form. We need him and he needs us.”

Milan restored their one-point lead on the table, thanks to a Franck Kessie penalty on 15 minutes and Rafael Leao’s terrific curling strike from a tight angle shortly after half-time. Sandro Tonali’s sending off after 33 minutes for a high tackle on Artur Ionita did not hold back Stefano Pioli’s side.

Gianluigi Donnarumma was solid in the Milan goal while Gianluca Caprari dragged a penalty wide on the hour. “We don’t let ourselves be put under pressure by the results of the opponents,” said Pioli whose side are unbeaten in 27 league games going back to March. “We’re ambitious, we’re not hiding it and we aim to win the next match as well against Juventus (on Wednesday).”

Conte unhappy despite Inter’s big win: Not even Sunday’s 6-2 thrashing of struggling Crotone and taking temporary possession of the Serie A top spot could cheer up Inter Milan manager Antonio Conte as he railed against Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal after the home victory.

A hat-trick by Lautaro Martinez helped Inter to get their eighth league win in a row but Conte was still smarting afterwards about Vidal conceding a first-half penalty that allowed bottom side Crotone to level at 2-2.

“Arturo has significant room for improvement,” Conte said. “Keep your head down and keep working, nobody is guaranteed a place here and he has to prove he deserves to play. He must do much better than what he is doing.

“Too many ups and downs, and we can’t afford them. He knows it, he knows he has to go back to training.”


Italian League late results

on Sunday:

Benevento 0 AC Milan 2 (Kessie 15-pen, Leao 49); Juventus 4 (Cristiano Ronaldo 31, 70, Chiesa 49, Dybala 90+3) Udinese 1 (Zeegelaar 90)