Juventus are Serie A champions for the ninth-season running and 36th time in history after clinching the title thanks to a 2-0 victory over Sampdoria on Sunday.
The Bianconeri failed to seal the deal on Thursday when they fell 2-1 to Udinese, but there was no such shortcoming at the Allianz Stadium as goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Federico Bernardeschi increased their lead atop the standings to an unassailable seven points with two matches remaining.
Ronaldo opened the scoring with a thumping right-footed finish in first-half stoppage time, while Bernardeschi made the most of an Emil Audero parry to tap home and give Maurizio Sarri the first league title of his career.
The early exchanges saw Ronaldo efforts blocked by Lorenzo Tonelli and Julian Chabot, with the latter hurting his ankle on the play. He was replaced by Mehdi Leris.
Danilo and Gaston Ramirez collided mid-air with the Juve man visibly dazed from the collision. He was replaced by Federico Bernardeschi, with Juan Cuadrado dropping back to defence.
Wojciech Szczesny was alert to deny two Fabio Quagliarella attempts, while Maya Yoshida almost defected an Alex Sandro ball into his own goal.
Sarri was forced to make further changes in the 40th minute when Paulo Dybala limped off with a left adductor issue. He was replaced Gonzalo Higuain.
The breakthrough came in the fifth minute of stoppage time from a well-worked Juventus free kick on the edge of the box. Miralem Pjanic rolled the ball across goal and Ronaldo thumped the ball into the far bottom corner.
Sampdoria were dangerous after the restart as Leris pushed the ball just wide of the near post from in close, while Szczesny got his fingertips on a Yoshida glancing header at the far post.
Tonelli headed the resulting corner just wide as well as the away side increased the pressure, but it was all for nothing as Juve doubled their advantage in the 67th minute.
Samp asked for a free kick after Blaise Matuidi won the ball from Tonelli, and on the resulting counter Audero couldn’t keep hold of Ronaldo’s right-footed strike. The rebound fell for Bernardeschi, who tapped home for his first goal of the season.
Szcezesy was called into action immediately when Leris’ cross found the head of Fabio Quagliarella, but the Juve goalkeeper palmed the ball away at the back post.
Samp’s slim hopes of a comeback were extinguished in the 77th minute when Morten Thorsby mistimed his tackle on Pjanic and picked up his second yellow of the match.
Ronaldo missed out on a chance to make it 32 goals this season when Juventus were handed a penalty for Fabio Depaoli’s lunge on Alex Sandro.
The Portuguese sent his thumping kick off the crossbar, but it made no difference in the grand scheme as Juve players celebrated another title at the sound of the final whistle.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com