Ronaldo hits 701st goal as Juventus pull clear in Serie A

The 34-year-old hit his 701st after 19 minutes, with Pjanic adding a second eight minutes after the break following a blunder by Brazilian defender Danilo

MILAN: Cristiano Ronaldo and Miralem Pjanic sealed a 2-1 win for Juventus over Bologna to consolidate top spot in Serie A.

Ronaldo was presented with a special jersey before kick-off to mark his 700th career goal scored playing for Portugal during the week.

The 34-year-old hit his 701st after 19 minutes, with Pjanic adding a second eight minutes after the break fol

lowing a blunder by Brazilian defender Danilo, who had earlier pulled Bologna level.

The defending champions are now four points clear of second-placed Inter Milan, who travel to Sassuolo on Sunday.

Atalanta stay third after throwing away a three-goal

lead to draw 3-3 with Lazio, with fourth-placed Napoli closing the gap to just one point after Arkadiusz Milik’s double saw off Verona.

“The road is the right one, but we need to work on some details. It was a good match blighted by three or four errors,” said Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri whose side host Lokomotiv Moscow in Champions League action on Tuesday.

Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic returned to the bench in Turin after his second course of chemotherapy as he battles cancer.

And the visitors were given reason to hope of snatching a rare point against the Turin giants when Danilo responded to Ronaldo’s opener with a 29th-minute volley.

But Pjanic sealed victory with his third goal in four games in the 54th minute amid chaos in front of the Bologna goal.

Bologna keeper Lukasz Skorupski denied Ronaldo and in-form Gonzalo Higuain

late before both the crossbar and Gianluigi Buffon frustrated Federico Santander’s push for a

last-gasp equaliser for the visitors who slip to 12th place.

“We watched the Santander goal again, it was offside so VAR would have ruled it out,” said Sarri.

“But I told the lads we mustn’t sit back on a lead, we should attack, otherwise we

leave ourselves in these risky situations to the very end.”

Serie A leading scorer Ciro Immobile’s late brace of penalties helped Lazio wipe out a three-goal deficit in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Atalanta.

Atalanta, who travel to Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday, had

led 3-0 with 21 minutes to go at the Stadio Olimpico.

But Immobile scored from the spot on 69 minutes and less than 60 seconds later set up Joaquin Correa for the second, before capping the comeback two minutes into injury time with his ninth goal in eight league games this term.

“With penalties, nobody can understand a thing nowadays,” blasted Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini.

“Immobile went for a walk, felt someone touch him slightly and dived. “Even more, on the second penalty, Immobile put his foot in front of De Roon.”

Colombian Luis Muriel scored a first-half double for the Bergamo side as compatriot and star striker Duvan Zapata was sidelined injured.

Alejandro Gomez got the third eight minutes before the break in a rematch of last season’s Italian Cup final which the Romans won.

But the visitors lost momentum after the hour mark.

Immobile got one back from the spot after being brought down by Jose Luis Palomino and then combined with Correa for their second.

Immobile earned a late penalty after a Marten de Roon foul, celebrating wildly after converting to grab a dramatic point before Lazio’s Europa League trip to Celtic next week.

“I’m losing years of my life kicking penalties in the 90th minute,” said 29-year-old Immobile, after scoring his third league goal from the spot this season.

Polish striker Milik scored in either half as Napoli got back to winning ways at the Stadio San Paolo, after a goalless draw at Torino before the international break, before their Champions League trip to Salzburg. “I started the season with fitness problems so I’m hungry now for goals,” said Milik, who also scored as Poland qualified for Euro 2020 during the week. Verona drop to 13th place.

BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund beat top-of-the-table Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0 to jump to fourth in the Bundesliga, level with Bayern Munich who earlier dropped points in a 2-2 draw at Augsburg.

The top of the Bundesliga grew even more congested with the top nine separated by just two points. Of the eight who have played so far this weekend, only Eintracht Frankfurt and Dortmund have won.

Gladbach remained top, ahead of Wolfsburg, who drew 1-1 at RB Leipzig, on goal difference. Both have 16 points from eight games.

Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig are all one point behind.

Then come four teams on 14 points, including Freiburg, who could have gone top but

lost 2-0 at Union Berlin, and Bayer Leverkusen, who could also have taken over first, but

lost at Frankfurt on Friday. Schalke have a chance to seize top spot when they visit Hoffenheim on Sunday.

In Dortmund, Thorgan Hazard’s first-half strike for the home team against his former club was ruled out by VAR for a tight offside call.

Hazard then found a sprinting Marco Reus with a perfect through ball in the 58th minute. Reus slotted home for the only goal of the game.

Even though another Dortmund strike was erased by VAR in the 85th minute, the home team finished the game hanging on, adopting a back-five and even a back-six in added time to end a run of three successive draws.

“We are very, very happy that our efforts were rewarded with victory today. You could see that the game could have turned in the other direction,” said Reus.

Coach Lucien Favre didn’t hide his annoyance with the two tight VAR decisions that went against his side.

“That the two goals were not given is not good for football,” lamented the Swiss coach.

Dortmund started without 19-year-old attacker Jadon Sancho who was dropped for “disciplinary reasons”.

“Jadon is a great kid, but he is still very young,” Dortmund director of football Michael Zorc told German television before kick-off.

“The decision was not easy, but there was no other choice. The suspension is only active for today.”

German media reported Sancho had returned late from England duty.

Reigning champions Bayern, meanwhile, slipped up for the second league match in succession, having lost 2-1 at home to Hoffenheim before the international break.

Augsburg grabbed a rapid lead -- just as they had in the corresponding fixture last year -- when Marco Richter found the net with a sweetly-struck volley just 30 seconds after kick-off, the fastest goal of the season so far.

Bayern replied as Robert Lewandowski stretched his scoring streak to eight games in the 14th minute from a Serge Gnabry cross.

After a host of missed chances, former Arsenal winger Gnabry then put Bayern 2-1 ahead after 49 minutes.

But a strong run in injury time by Sergio Cordova set up Alfred Finnbogason, who finished past Manuel Neuer to earn a point for Augsburg, and put another early dent in Bayern’s title defence.

Thomas Mueller missed two chances after coming on as a late substitute after a week of controversy over the fact he has not started a game since September.

Timo Werner scored his first goal in five games for Leipzig in a tight tussle against Wolfsburg at the Red Bull Arena.

It was not enough. Wolfsburg scored a late equaliser when Dutch striker Wout Weghorst finished a William cross to keep the race at the top close.

Wolfsburg are the only unbeaten team in the division.

At the Weserstadion, Werder Bremen opened the scoring at home against Hertha Berlin as Josh Sargent’s strike took a deflection on its way into the net in the seventh minute.

Dodi Lukebakio hit back in the 70th minute for Hertha to secure a 1-1 draw. He beat three defenders, including Theodor Gebre Selassie twice, in a mazy run from the wing.

Union Berlin claimed just the second win of their debut top-flight season by beating Freiburg at a bouncing Stadion an der Alten Foersterei.