The Star Malaysia

Ronaldo makes no mistake from the spot as Juve jive again.

Ronaldo, dybala get Juventus back to winning ways

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Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala scored early as Juventus put their Italian Cup final woes behind them with a 2-0 win over Bologna to move four points clear of Lazio on top of the Serie A table.

Portuguese star Ronaldo had missed a penalty in the Italian Cup semi-final against AC Milan, and drew a blank in the final which Juventus lost 4-2 on penalties to Napoli.

But the 35-year-old made no mistake in Juventus’ first league game since beating Inter Milan 2-0 in Turin on March 8.

He converted a spot-kick earned by Matthijs de Ligt after 23 minutes for his 26th goal for the Turin giants in all competitio­ns this season.

Dybala curled in the second on 36 minutes off a Federico Bernardesc­hi back-heel flick as Juventus, chasing a ninth consecutiv­e Scudetto, opened up a fourpoint lead on second-placed Lazio.

“We need confidence and this victory will help us,” said Dybala.

“It’s not easy to be brilliant right now, we hadn’t been playing for a long time.

“If we had won the (Italian Cup) final everyone would have compliment­ed us, because on a tactical level we have had a great game, even if we were not brilliant, but we conceded little.

“Today we played a great game, even if after 2-0 we gave up a bit.”

Lazio travel north to fourthplac­ed Atalanta in Bergamo today, looking to keep their bid for a first Serie A title in two decades on track.

Inter Milan, in third, are nine points adrift of Juventus, and next host Sassuolo.

AC Milan shrugged off the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovi­c to sweep past Lecce 4-1 and keep their bid for European football next season alive as 10-man Fiorentina were held 1-1 by basement club Brescia.

Swedish star Ibrahimovi­c has yet to return from a calf injury but Milan put their exit in the Italian Cup semi-final behind them at relegation-threatened Lecce.

“It’s an important victory,” said Milan coach Stefano Pioli.

“Roma (in fifth) are far away at the moment but we have to try to make as many points as possible.

“Ibra is a fundamenta­l player for us, without him we had to find other solutions.”

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 ?? — ap ?? caught in a tangle: Juventus’ cristiano Ronaldo tries to get past Bologna’s takehiro tomiyasu at the Renato dall’ara stadium in Bologna on Monday.
— ap caught in a tangle: Juventus’ cristiano Ronaldo tries to get past Bologna’s takehiro tomiyasu at the Renato dall’ara stadium in Bologna on Monday.

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