MILAN, Oct 20: Cristiano Ronaldo and Miralem Pjanic sealed a 2-1 win for Juventus over Bologna to consolidate top spot in Serie A.
Ronaldo was presented with a special jersey before kick-off to mark his 700th career goal scored playing for Portugal during the week.
The 34-year-old hit his 701st after 19 minutes, with Pjanic adding a second eight minutes after the break following a blunder by Brazilian defender Danilo, who had earlier pulled Bologna level.
The defending champions are now four points clear of second-placed Inter Milan, who travel to Sassuolo on Sunday.
Atalanta stay third after throwing away a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 with Lazio, with fourth-placed Napoli closing the gap to just one point after Arkadiusz Milik's double saw off Verona.
"The road is the right one, but we need to work on some details. It was a good match blighted by three or four errors," said Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri whose side host Lokomotiv Moscow in Champions League action on Tuesday.
Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic returned to the bench in Turin after his second course of chemotherapy as he battles cancer.
And the visitors were given reason to hope of snatching a rare point against the Turin giants when Danilo responded to Ronaldo's opener with a 29th-minute volley.
But Pjanic sealed victory with his third goal in four games in the 54th minute amid chaos in front of the Bologna goal.
Bologna keeper Lukasz Skorupski denied Ronaldo and in-form Gonzalo Higuain late before both the crossbar and Gianluigi Buffon frustrated Federico Santander's push for a last-gasp equaliser for the visitors who slip to 12th place.
"We watched the Santander goal again, it was offside so VAR would have ruled it out," said Sarri.
"But I told the lads we mustn't sit back on a lead, we should attack, otherwise we leave ourselves in these risky situations to the very end." - AFP
