TURIN: Cristiano Ronaldo continued his scoring streak with the opener as Juventus cruised past AS Roma 3-1 in their Coppa Italia quarter-final on Wednesday, scoring all their goals in the first half.

Gonzalo Higuain set Ronaldo free down the left and the irrepressible Portuguese fired his shot into the far corner in the 26th minute to claim his 13th goal in the last 10 matches he has played in.

It was also his first-ever Coppa Italia goal, making it the 15th club competition he has scored in during his career out of 17 he has taken part in — the exceptions being England’s Community Shield and the old UEFA Cup.

“He is in super form physically,” Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri said.

“In terms of explosiveness he is doing well, he takes great care of the details. It is difficult to improve on an individual level. We are talking about one of the greatest of all time and I would like to help him win a sixth Ballon d’Or.”

Rodrigo Bentancur doubled Juve’s lead in the 38th. He started the run from midfield, passed the ball to Douglas Costa, collected it back and managed to squeeze in a shot even though he was surrounded by a number of Roma players.

Juve were in complete control and scored a third in first-half stoppage time as Leonardo Bonucci headed in a corner.

Roma went out at the same stage last season with a 7-1 loss at Fiorentina and it looked like they might go down by a similar scoreline this time.

But Paulo Fonseca’s side improved in the second half and pulled one back five minutes after the break with a Cengiz Under shot which hit the bar, bounced off goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and into the net and was given as an own goal by the 41-year-old.

Buffon denied Alessandro Florenzi and Aleksandar Kolorav to keep Juventus on course in the competition they have won 13 times but exited in the quarter-finals last season to Atalanta.

They will face either AC Milan or Torino in the semi-finals.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2020