Substitute Ronaldo rescues Juventus against Atalanta

●Inter beat Napoli in dramatic end ●AC Milan fail to score for the fourth game in a row

Juventus can't afford to give Cristiano Ronaldo a rest.

Massimiliano Allegri was forced to bring on Ronaldo for the final 25 minutes, while Juventus was trailing and down to 10 men. The Portugal superstar leveled but did not have time to completely rescue Juventus as it was held at Atalanta to 2-2 yesterday.

It was only the second time this season that Juventus has dropped points in Serie A, but still the champions increased their lead at the top as Napoli were in the evening beaten by Inter.

The Bianconeri, as winter champions with two rounds to spare, took the opportunity to rest Ronaldo and some others. And it seemed as if that would no effect as Juventus took the lead after less than two minutes as Atalanta defender Berat Djimsiti turned Alex Sandro's innocuous-looking cross into his own net.

Rodrigo Bentancur almost doubled Juve's lead moments later but his strike was deflected onto the crossbar.

But Atalanta shook off all that and leveled in the 24th. Duvan Zapata gathered a Papu Gomez throughball, turned Leonardo Bonucci and scored in a fifth successive Serie A match.

Matters started to go wrong for Juventus eight minutes into the second half when Bentancur was sent off following a second yellow card.

It took Atalanta just three minutes to make the most of the numerical advantage as Zapata headed in a corner.

Allegri sent on Ronaldo in the 65th and he leveled 13 minutes later, heading in from point-blank range after Giorgio Chiellini flicked on a corner. Before celebrating, Ronaldo immediately grabbed the ball and raced towards the center circle, urging his teammates to do the same.

Juventus thought it got a stoppage-time winner but Bonucci's goal was ruled out for offside.

FIGHT FOR FOURTH

At the age of 35, Fabio Quagliarella is almost singlehandedly propelling Sampdoria into a Champions League qualifying berth.

Quagliarella was on target again — for the eighth successive Serie A match — with a stunning backheeled goal to help his side beat bottom club Chievo Verona 2-0.

Meanwhile, Lazio moved into fourth and the last Champions League spot with a 2-0 win at Bologna, which is managed by Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi's brother, Filippo.

Sampdoria was fifth, while AC Milan slipped to sixth, putting coach Gennaro Gattuso under more pressure after drawing at relegation-threatened Frosinone 0-0. It extended Milan's winless streak to five in all competitions. The Rossoneri also haven't scored in four successive Serie A matches.

OTHER MATCHES

Parma won at 10-man Fiorentina 1-0, and Cagliari beat fellow struggler Genoa 1-0.

Lautaro Martinez scored deep in stoppages, moments after a goalline clearance denied 10-man Napoli, for a massive Inter win, but Kalidou Koulibaly and Lorenzo Insigne saw red.

This was a huge battle between third and second, with eight points dividing them going into this Boxing Day showdown. The Nerazzurri had fallen behind after a draw with bottom of the table Chievo and suspended Radja Nainggolan for turning up late to training several times, also fining him €100,000.

Marek Hamsik pulled up with a suspected thigh strain and made way for Nikola Maksimovic, returning Callejon to his usual role.

Koulibaly was booked for using his arm when running shoulder-toshoulder with Politano, then sarcastically applauded the referee for an inevitable dismissal.

Icardi’s header from a corner was palmed away by Meret and Keita had penalty appeals waved away, as he seemed to run into Raul Albiol.

Despite going down to 10 men, Napoli had a triple chance to win it in the final minute. Handanovic flew to beat away a dangerous cross, then got back on his feet to parry the Insigne shot, while Zielinski’s third attempt was cleared off the line by Kwadwo Asamoah.

Incredibly, Inter scored to win it moments later. Matias Vecino’s dummy let a Keita cross through from the left and Lautaro Martinez swung the boot first time from 11 yards to beat Meret.

The drama still wasn’t over, as Insigne was dismissed for an off the ball incident, as he kicked Keita from behind after the ex-Lazio man had pulled his ear in an earlier clash. The final whistle didn’t stop it either, as scuffles continued and Ancelotti had to hold Mario Rui back. Serie A

Yesterday

Frosinone-AC Milan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-0 Atalanta-Juventus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Bologna-Lazio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 Cagliari-Genoa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Fioren na-Parma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Sampdoria-Chievo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-0 AS Roma-Sassuolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 Spal-Udinese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-0 Torino-Empoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-0 Inter-Napoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0

Yesterday

Brescia-Cremonese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Carpi-Livorno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Today

Pescara-Venezia

Cosenza-Salernitana

Crotone-Spezia

Padova-Benevento

Palermo-Ascoli

Perugia-Foggia

Verona-Ci adella

Yesterday

Piacenza-Siena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Carrarese-Entella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 Novara-Pisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Pro Patria-Cuneo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-0 Pro Vercelli-Olbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Albissola-Alessandria . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Arezzo-Pistoiese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Pontedera-Lucchese . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 Today

Arzachena-Gozzano

Juventus U-23-Pro Piacenza

Serie C- Group B

Yesterday

L.R. Vicenza-AlbinoLeffe . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Pordenone-FeralpiSalo . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Renate-Rimini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Sambenede ese-Fermana . . . . . . . . 2-0 Tries na-Fano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Virtus Verona-Gubbio . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1 Vis Pesaro-Giana Erminio . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Monza-Sud rol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Imolese-Ravenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Today

Ternana-Teramo

Serie C- Group C

Yesterday

Casertana-Sicula Leonzio . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Cavese-Bisceglie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-0 Matera-Reggina 1914 . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-6 Trapani-Catanzaro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Vibonese-Potenza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Virtus Francavilla-Juve Stabia . . . . . . 1-1 Viterbese-Paganese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Siracusa-Monopoli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Today

Rie -Catania