Cristiano Ronaldo scored either side of a Fabio Quagliarella penalty to earn Juventus a 2-1 win over Sampdoria as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) took centre stage in Turin.
The ex-Real Madrid man opened the scoring within three minutes as he cut in from the left and powered an effort past goalkeeper Emil Audero, who is on loan from Juventus. Ronaldo looked rampant and it appeared a question of how many Juve would score as his constant trickery seemed to bamboozle the Samp defence.
However, they were pegged back on 33 minutes when, after consulting with VAR, the referee adjudged midfielder Emre Can to have handled in the box and Fabio Quagliarella stepped up to slot past Juve debutant Mattia Perin.
The goal saw Quagliarella become the first player since David Trezeguet in 2005 to score in nine consecutive Serie A matches.
Samp were more than in the match and kept Perin busy until the referee awarded the hosts a penalty of their own on 65 minutes following a Gian Marco Ferrari handball. The referee immediately pointed to the spot before deciding to consult with VAR and eventually sticking with his original decision.
Ronaldo made no mistake from 12 yards as he scored Juve’s 100th goal of 2018 and his 14th of the campaign.
The visitors thought they had scored a stoppage time equaliser when sub Riccardo Saponara pounced on a Perin mistake to fire an effort into the top corner, but VAR intervened again to earn Juve all three points.
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