Pjanic and Ronaldo lift Juventus
Miralem Pjanic's stunning effort and a late header from Cristiano Ronaldo saw Juventus move top of Serie A with a 2-0 victory over struggling SPAL.
Juve dominated throughout the encounter in Turin, but found visiting goalkeeper Etrit Berisha in fine form.
It took a sublime strike from Pjanic to beat him, the playmaker breaking SPAL's resistance with a wonderful effort in the 45th minute.
Having been denied by Berisha once more just after the hour, Ronaldo finally had his goal with 12 minutes remaining, heading home from Paulo Dybala's pinpoint cross to cap off a dominant Juve performance.
On his return after missing the victory over Brescia, Ronaldo had Juve's first sight of goal, drawing a smart stop from Berisha.
Ronaldo did beat Berisha in the 19th minute, but his deflected effort crept wide of the right-hand upright.
Berisha soon came to SPAL's rescue twice more, tipping Dybala's strike wide before he brilliantly kept out Aaron Ramsey's close-range header.
But his work was undone on the stroke of half-time - Pjanic curling home an exceptional first-time finish from the edge of the area after SPAL's goalkeeper mistakenly elected to punch, rather than catch, a cross.
Berisha made another outstanding stop early in the second half, this time getting down to repel Sami Khedira's header.
Dybala and Ronaldo tested Berisha in quick succession as Juve looked to press home its dominance, although it was not until the duo combined that the hosts finally had their second.
Having raced clear down the left, Dybala picked out his strike partner with an exquisite delivery from which Ronaldo made no mistake, but there was still time for Berisha to make a final stop to prevent the Portugal forward doubling his tally in the final minute.
