Football

Juventus 3-1 Sassuolo: Cristiano Ronaldo draws level with Josef Bican as joint-top scorer in football history

Cristiano Ronaldo is on the brink of arguably his proudest achievement to date after levelling with Josef Bican as top goalscorer in football history.

Ronaldo scored his 22nd goal for club and country this season as Juventus moved up to fourth after leaving it late to defeat plucky Sassuolo 3-1 on Sunday evening.

As Ronaldo sealed the victory on Sunday, the Portuguese star netted his 759th goal for both club and country – a record now only matched by Bican, the Austrian-Czech striker who played between 1931 and 1955.

Aaron Ramsey and Danilo were also on the scoresheet for Juventus as they followed up their 3-1 victory at AC Milan in style.

Andrea Pirlo’s side currently sit in fourth in Serie A, just a point behind Roma who have played a match more.

The visitors, who have been one of European football’s surprise packages this season, were reduced to 10 men in first-half stoppage time when former West Ham midfielder Pedro Obiang scythed down Federico Chiesa.

Danilo then put Andrea Pirlo’s men ahead five minutes after the restart, hammering a 30-yard thunderbolt into the bottom right-hand corner of Andrea Consigli’s goal, with the flying Italian nowhere near it.

The hosts couldn’t press home their one-man advantage though and were pegged back eight minutes later, when Gregoire Defrel pushed Hamed Traore’s pass between Juve centre backs Merih Demiral and Leonardo Bonucci with his left foot, before producing a sliding right-foot finish to beat the sprawling Wojciech Szczesny.

Roberto De Zerbi’s men looked like upsetting the odds once again this term and rode their luck when Chiesa struck a post, but Aaron Ramsey came to his side’s rescue, turning in Gianluca Frabotta’s cross to move his team within a point of third-placed Roma having played a game fewer than Paulo Fonseca’s men.

Ronaldo then put the icing on the cake in stoppage time, calmly controlling a long ball over the top by Danilo before charging into the penalty area and slotting past Consigli as he made even more history.