Ronaldo marks 600th league game with landmark goal just as Juve beat Spezia
Cristiano Ronaldo marked his 600th league appearance along with his 20th Serie An objective of the season as Juventus beat Spezia 3-0 on Tuesday to go within three points of second-placed AC Milan.
The Portuguese guided in his side's third goal late on after Alvaro Morata and Federico Chiesa had struck earlier in the next half to place Andrea Pirlo's side in a commanding position.
Ronaldo, who likewise hit the post with an effort in the initially half, becomes the initially player to score in least 20 goals in each one of the last 12 seasons in Europe's top five leagues.
The win leaves Juve third with 49 points from 24 games behind Milan on 52 and leaders Inter with 56, both of whom are in action this week against Udinese and Parma respectively.
The gap still leaves Juventus with work to accomplish in their quest for a 10th consecutive league title.
"If we don't win it towards the end of the season we will congratulate the winners, but we should die in the pitch 1st, until we're told there are forget about points left to take up for" Morata told Sky Italia.
"That's what we must do, so long as we have a good mathematical chance, we will fight before end."
DOUBLE SUBSTITUTION
Pirlo's Juve side slipped up with a good draw in mid-table Hellas Verona on Saturday and knew they cannot afford any longer mistakes having fallen 10 points behind league leaders Inter.
But they lost defender Matthijs De Ligt to injury in the warm-up and struggled in the opening period, approaching closest when Ronaldo dribbled in to the box and curled a go off the base of the post.
The double introduction of Morata and Federico Bernardeschi with around 30 minutes remaining proved decisive, as the winger teed up the Spanish striker to score his earliest league goal since December within 60 seconds of coming on.
"Morata is a simple player for all of us; he features a lot of quality, knows how exactly to use the team, how exactly to attack the space and score goals," Pirlo said.
"He's the player that we wanted. Unfortunately he features been missing lately however now we hope he can get back to his best quickly."
Bernardeschi was involved again as he found Chiesa in the box for Juve's second goal, with the latter scoring on the rebound after his primary effort was parried by Ivan Provedel.
Ronaldo then broke upfield and scored with a composed finish in the 89th minute to seal the win, although Spezia squandered the opportunity for a consolation goal when Wojciech Szczesny saved Andrey Galabinov's penalty with the ultimate kick of the overall game.
