Staff Reporter.
Christiano Ronaldo’s 100th goal for Juventus in all competitions kept alive his side’s hopes of a top-four Serie A finish after a 3-1 away win against an impressive Sassuolo on Wednesday.
Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon saved a penalty as Juventus beat Sassuolo to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League.
Buffon, 43, has announced he will be leaving Juve at the end of the season and denied Sassuolo a lead by saving Domenico Berardi’s first-half penalty.
Adrien Rabiot fired Juventus ahead with a low shot, before Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 100th goal for the club.
Giacomo Raspadori pulled one back, but Paulo Dybala got a third for Juventus.
Juventus had won the title in each of the previous nine years, but, under Andrea Pirlo, have struggled in the league and are fifth in Serie A with two matches to go.
They need to beat champions Inter Milan on Saturday and win at Bologna on 23 May and hope Atalanta, AC Milan or Napoli drop points to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League.
Buffon has won Serie A 10 times with Juventus in two spells with the club and was making his 657th Serie A appearance, although it was only his seventh league game of the season.
Earlier this week, Buffon said he had “reached the end of a cycle” at Juventus and that “this beautiful and very long experience will come to a definitive end this year”.
Yet he still showed his agility in the 15th minute to dive to his left to parry Berardi’s spot-kick after Leonardo Bonucci tripped Raspadori.
At 43 years and 104 days, Buffon is now the oldest goalkeeper to save a penalty in Serie A history.
Juventus went ahead 12 minutes later through Rabiot’s strike, which went in off the foot of the post, before Ronaldo doubled their lead just before half-time from 14 yards out.
Buffon, who made another fine save to deny Pedro Obiang, was beaten in the second half when Raspadori calmly finished after a one-two with Manuel Locatelli.
However, the visitors quickly restored their two-goal advantage with Dejan Kulusevski’s through ball leading to a fine lofted finish from Dybala as the Argentine also reached a century of Juventus goals.
Ronaldo nearly got his second of the night late on but his angled shot bounced off the post.
Meanwhile Romelu Lukaku and Ashley Young are among four Inter Milan players who have been fined for breaking Covid-19 rules in Italy.