Juventus lose to Cagliari; Ibra stars in Milan win

Cristiano Ronaldo's hopes of finishing the season as top scorer in Italy's Serie A faded away on Wednesday as he failed
Juventus lose to Cagliari; Ibra stars in Milan win

TURIN: Cristiano Ronaldo's hopes of finishing the season as top scorer in Italy's Serie A faded away on Wednesday as he failed to find the net when champions Juventus slumped to a shock 2-0 defeat away to Cagliari.

The 35-year-old Portuguese attacker is on 31 goals for the season, four behind Lazio's Ciro Immobile with only a home league game against fifth-placed AS Roma left to play.

Cagliari, who are 13th in the table, shocked the newly-crowned champions in the eighth minute when 20-year-old striker Luca Gagliano reacted quickest, stabbing home Federico Mattiello's pass across the box to net his first goal for the club.

Things went from bad to worse for Juve in first-half stoppage time as Giovanni Simeone smashed a right-foot shot across keeper Gianluigi Buffon and in at the far post to put Cagliari two goals up.

With a first-half goal chalked off for offside, Ronaldo had plenty of chances as Juve dominated, but he found his efforts smothered by the Cagliari defence.

When his team mates did manage to get a shot on target they found keeper Alessio Cragno in superb form as Cagliari held on to win.

Veteran AC Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice and Gianluigi Donnarumma saved a penalty as they won 4-1 at Sampdoria to stay unbeaten since the Serie A season restarted.

Milan remained sixth with 63 points which will earn them a place in the Europa League second qualifying round next season, with the automatic spot in that competition going to fifth-placed AS Roma, who beat Torino 3-2 later on Wednesday.

Milan went ahead after four minutes when Ante Rebic crossed from the left and the unmarked Ibrahimovic headed past Sampdoria goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone who was making his Serie A debut at the age of 25.

Lazio recorded a 2-0 win against already-relegated Brescia in their penultimate match of the season to stay in the race for second spot in the Serie A table.

Lecce won 2-1 at Udinese to avoid drop while Genoa was routed 5-0 at Sassuolo.

Lecce remained in the bottom three but is just one point below 17th-place Genoa.

Federico Chiesa scored a hat trick to help Fiorentina beat Bologna 4-0 and Verona beat Spal 3-0. Agencies

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