Cristiano Ronaldo Scores, Juventus Beat SPAL 2-0 in Serie A
Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo continued their unbeaten start to the Serie A season on Saturday with a 2-0 victory over SPAL at home.
Miralem Pjanic got the opener shortly before half-time, and Ronaldo doubled the advantage after the break.
The Old Lady could have easily added three or four more goals, but SPAL goalkeeper Etrit Berisha played one of the best matches of his life, making several incredible stops.
ESPN FC's James Horncastle credited the goalkeeper for his great form early this season:
Matthijs de Ligt was a standout for the Bianconeri, playing his best match for his new club so far.
Juventus entered the day two points behind leaders Inter Milan, who face Sampdoria later on Saturday.
Stopper Gianluigi Buffon returned to the starting XI and overtook Paolo Maldini for the most club appearances for an Italian player on Saturday:
Juventus did not start the contest well, struggling to break down a SPAL team that looked to defend and break on the counter-attack.
Sami Khedira aimed a header wide of the post after nine minutes, and Ronaldo drew a first save from Berisha 10 minutes later. The goalkeeper didn't have much to do during the first 35 minutes, with Juventus finding little success with their crosses.
The defending Serie A champions pushed the pace to close out the half, however, and Paulo Dybala went close to scoring after a beautiful passing move, but he found Berisha in his path.
Aaron Ramsey also couldn't beat the stopper, but Pjanic did shortly before half-time with a fantastic volley from outside the box. It was his second long-range goal in two matches.
At half-time, football writer Adam Digby noted the Ronaldo-Dybala tandem was once again not yielding results:
Khedira could have doubled the lead early in the second half after good work from Ronaldo, but he powered his header right at Berisha.
The hosts regressed, and Sarri responded by introducing Emre Can and Federico Bernardeschi, but it was Dybala who created the next chance, again running into Berisha.
The stopper had an outing for the ages:
The 30-year-old denied Ronaldo after 70 minutes, keeping his team's chances alive, but he was finally beaten again after 78 minutes when Dybala picked out Ronaldo for a strong header.
The second goal settled the nerves a bit for Juventus, who comfortably played out the contest. They tested Berisha two more times, but Ronaldo could not add a second goal to his tally.
The win puts the pressure back on rivals Inter ahead of their trip to Genoa to face Sampdoria.
