Ronaldo breaks his duck with a brace for Juventus

CRISTIANO Ronaldo broke his Juventus duck in his fourth game when he scored a brace yesterday to give them a 2-1 win over Sassuolo in Serie A, although the Turin side’s day was marred by a red card for Douglas Costa for spitting at an opponent.

He opened his account in the easiest possible fashion by tapping into an empty net from less than two metres in the 50th minute.

The Portuguese added another in the 65th minute when he finished off a counter-attack by drilling a lowangled shot beyond Andrea Consigli.

After Ronaldo missed two good chances for a hat-trick, Khouma Babacar headed one back in the 90th minute but could not prevent Sassuolo from falling to their first defeat of the season.

Costa became involved in a running feud with Sassuolo midfielder Federico Di Francesco.

The Brazilian escaped with a booking for elbowing and then head-butting his rival as they tangled before the Sassuolo goal but was then sent off after video cameras caught him spitting at the same player in another altercation.

Juventus, chasing an eighth successive Serie A title, have 12 points, three ahead of Napoli. Earlier, AS Roma squandered a two-goal lead when they were held 2-2 at home by lowly Chievo.

ENGLAND

WOLVERHAMPTON Wanderers inflicted a fourth successive defeat on Burnley with a 1-0 victory at Molineux yesterday, leaving the visitors bottom of the Premier League after their worst start to a top-flight season in 89 years.

After Wolves missed several chances in the first half, Raul Jimenez pounced in the 61st minute to break the deadlock with his second goal of the season.

Burnley pressed for a leveller, but lacked any real threat in attack, mustering just two tame shots on target in the entire match.

Wolves continue to look at home in the top flight and sit in the top half of the table with eight points from five games, while Burnley, who finished seventh last season, have a solitary point.

“I am very, very satisfied,” Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo said. “If there is a ‘but’, we could be more clinical. But if we can continue to make this many chances, it makes me very proud.”

“We took a bit of a battering,” Burnly keeper Joe Hart said. “Wolves were really on it. We have a lot more to come and a lot more to do. It is what it is so we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and keep going.”

Meanwhile, West Ham United beat Everton 3-1 at Goodison Park yesterday to secure their first Premier League points of the season as Marco Silva tasted defeat for the first time as Everton manager.

A much-changed West Ham side took the lead after 11 minutes following a swift counter-attack through Andriy Yarmolenko and the Ukrainian forward curled a stunning shot into the net 20 minutes later to make it two.

Gylfi Sigurdsson headed Everton back into the match on the stroke of hal-ftime, but Marko Arnautovic’s goal just after the hour mark ensured West Ham climbed off the bottom of the table and up to 16th.

Everton did not manage a single shot on target in the second half.