Ronaldo keeps Juve flying high
▶ AC Milan drop to 5th in Serie A after 3rd loss of season
Cristiano Ronaldo scored as Juventus bounced back from their midweek Champions League defeat by Manchester United with a 2-0 win over 10man AC Milan in Serie A on Sunday, as Gonzalo Higuain missed a penalty before being sent off for the hosts.
Mario Mandzukic headed in the opener in the eighth minute at the San Siro with Ronaldo adding a second on 81 minutes as Juventus maintained their six-point cushion ahead of the international break.
It got the defending seventime Serie A champions back on track after suffering their first defeat of the season by United following two late goals despite Ronaldo’s stunning volley.
“Winning tonight was the only way to put aside what happened in the final five minutes of the Champions League game,” said Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri.
A third loss of the campaign, however, saw AC Milan drop to fifth, out of the Champions League places behind Lazio who moved back into fourth despite a 1-1 draw at Sassuolo.
Inter Milan’s seven-match winning streak ended with a 4-1 defeat at Atalanta, with Luciano Spalletti’s side losing second place to Napoli who came from behind to beat Genoa 2-1 on Saturday.
Juventus have 34 points from 12 games – six ahead of Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli with Inter a further three behind.
Allegri’s side rarely looked threatened by AC Milan with Mandzukic rising highest to nod in an Alex Sandro cross to dampen spirits among the 75,000-capacity crowd at the San Siro. The Croatian World Cup runner-up could have made it two shortly after, meeting a cross this time from Ronaldo but AC Milan skipper Alessio Romagnoli blocked.
Higuain returned from a back problem to face his parent club, but it was to be a nightmare outing for the forward who had been loaned out to AC Milan last summer to make space for Ronaldo.
The Argentine missed a penalty awarded after Medhi Benatia handled in the area five minutes before the break with Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny tipping the ball onto the post.
Ronaldo tested Gianluigi Donnarumma in the AC Milan goal early in the second half before finally blasting in nine minutes from time for his first goal at the San Siro.
Minutes later Higuain saw red after shouting at the referee in frustration after a foul on Benatia, and was led off the pitch in tears.
“I told him not to exaggerate, to calm down and not to risk a major penalty,” said Ronaldo of what he told Higuain on the pitch. “He was nervous, he was losing, but we must not blame him, he didn’t say anything.”