Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first free-kick in Italy as Juventus recorded a seventh consecutive league victory to further strengthen their grip at the top of the Serie A with a 4-1 triumph in the Derby della Mole.
Paulo Dybala continued his rich vein of form to give the hosts a third-minute breakthrough with a fine individual goal, similar to his effort in the midweek victory over Genoa. Ronaldo then set up Juan Cuadrado who doubled the Old Lady’s advantage with less than half-an-hour on the clock.
With Juventus seemingly cruising, the referee checked with VAR and controversially awarded Torino a penalty deep into stoppage-time in the first-half after Simone Verdi’s shot struck De Ligt’s thigh and bounced on to his arm. Andrea Belotti converted, beating Gigi Buffon, who was making a record 648th league appearance.
With new-found belief, Torino came firing out of the blocks at the start of the second period and had the ball over the line, only for Belotti to be flagged offside.
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But their hopes were extinguished in sublime fashion when Ronaldo floated a lovely free-kick over the wall and past the helpless Salvatore Sirigu for his 25th league goal of the campaign. He becomes the first Juve player to reach that landmark since 1960/61.
Juventus finished with a flurry and an own-goal by substitute Koffi Djidij added the gloss to another impressive result for Maurizio Sarri’s men.
The victory sees Juventus open up a seven-point gap on second-placed Lazio, who host AC Milan later on Saturday.