Serie A matchday 37 roundup: Ronaldo fires blanks, Immobile on course to win Golden boot

Juventus lost yet another Serie A game on Wednesday as 13th placed Cagliari shocked them with two goals to extend Juve’s bad run of form.

Cristiano Ronaldo‘s hopes of finishing the season as top scorer in Italy’s Serie A faded further as he fired blanks and could not help his team overcome a shock defeat after winning the Serie A title in the previous game week.

The forward is on 31 goals for the season, four behind Lazio’s Ciro Immobile with only a home league game against fifth-placed 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, to stab home Federico Mattiello’s pass 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 goalkeeper 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 goalkeeper Alessio Cragno in superb form as Cagliari held on to win.

Ciro Immobile adds to his tally as Lazio beat Brescia

Immobile scored his 35th goal of the season as Lazio maintained the pressure over Inter Milan and Atalanta for a second-place finish after their comfortable win, beating Brescia 2-0 on Wednesday.

With one game of the Serie A season remaining, Immobile is the outright leading scorer in Europe as his latest strike moved him ahead of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, who finished the Bundesliga season with 34 goals.

Immobile is also just one goal away from equalling the Serie A record for most goals in a season.

Gonzalo Higuain scored 36 times for Napoli in the 2015-16 campaign.

Joaquin Correa scored the other goal for Lazio in win over Brescia.

AC Milan continue unbeaten run since restart with a thumping 4-1 win over Sampdoria

AC Milan forward 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 remains sixth with 63 points, which will allow them to secure a place in the Europa League second qualifying round next season, with the automatic spot in that competition going to fifth-placed Roma.

The visitors 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.

However, Falcone made a good save to deny Ibrahimovic a second goal before half-time when the Swede’s shot took a deflection.

Donnarumma did well to stop a Fabio Quagliarella free-kick after the break before Hakan Calhanoglu added a second in the 54th minute. The referee initially disallowed it for a foul but the goal was awarded following a VAR review.

Calhanoglu also set up the third with a pass to Ibrahimovic who scored from a narrow-angle four minutes later. It was the 38-year-old Swede’s ninth league goal since he returned for a second stint with Milan in January.

Full Wednesday night results for matchday 37

It was a night of goals in the Serie A as each game averaged a minimum of 2 goals per match. Sassuolo were big winners against Genoa, winning 5-0, while Fiorentina were 4-0 victors against Bologna. Verona beat SPAL 3-0 at home while Lecce picked up a 2-1 away win at Udinese.

Full results of games played on Wednesday night

Cagliari 2-0 Juventus
Lazio 2-0 Brescia
Sampdoria 1-4 AC Milan
Sassuolo 5-0 Genoa
Udinese 1-2 Lecce
Hellas Verona 3-0 SPAL
Fiorentina 4-0 Bologna
Torino 2-3 Roma