Serie A

Result: Juventus 3-0 Crotone

Date: 22 February 2021

Venue: Allianz Stadium

Cristiano Ronaldo moved to the top of the Serie A Golden Boot chart after bagging a brace in Juventus' 3-0 win over Crotone on Monday night.

Gianluigi Buffon, Merih Demiral and Aaron Ramsey were recalled to the Juventus line-up, as Wojciech Szczesny, Giorgio Chiellini and Adrien Rabiot dropped to the bench.

Ramsey should've marked his return to the side with a goal on 20 minutes after being played in by Danilo but he sent his effort wide of the mark, before squandering a similar chance four minutes later.

The hosts continued to dominate but the frustration continued as Ramsey got on the end of Federico Chiesa's cross but was only able to steer his header onto the crossbar on 38 minutes.

However, Juventus got their reward two minutes later when Alex Sandro picked out the run of Ronaldo, who sent a fine header past Crotone shot-stopper Alex Cordaz to put his side ahead.

The Portuguese superstar added a second goal on the stroke of halftime with a close-range finish off Ramsey's cross to hand the defending Italian champions a two-goal cushion at the break.

Click through the gallery below to see the highest-paid players in Serie A:

The home side picked up from where they left off in the first half, as Weston McKennie got his name on the scoresheet after the hour mark with a thumping finish into the roof of the net.

With Juventus comfortably leading, Andrea Pirlo was able to withdraw the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski for the final 20 minutes, as Nicolo Fagioli and Alvaro Morata were introduced.

The Old Lady had a couple more openings in the latter stages of the second stanza, but Federico Bernardeschi and Morata were unable to convert as the three goals were enough to send Pirlo's men up to third spot.