Juventus sail past Spezia in Serie A

Alvaro Morata struck off a Federico Bernardeschi cross on 62 minutes, seconds after both came on to improve Juve's sluggish display.

Ten minutes later another Bernardeschi feed from the left found Federico Chiesa who acrobatically fired home the rebound after his initial shot was saved by Spezia goalkeeper Ivan Provedel.

Ronaldo had an effort hit the post in the first half and missed an opportunity from a goal-mouth deflection but finished a late counter-attack to round off the scoring for Juve.

Bianconeri goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny kept a clean sheet by saving a stoppage-time penalty taken by Spezia substitute Andrey Galabinov, after Emmanuel Gyasi had been tripped by Merih Demiral.

Juve sit third in Serie A, seven points adrift of leaders Inter Milan and three shy of AC Milan.

"These were three important points," Morata said.

"We want to stick to our will to win. There are still many points available and we have a game in hand.

"I have had three weeks without much strength [due to the flu] but we all must be ready and available as we have many absentees."

Promoted Spezia are seven points clear of the drop zone in 16th place.

Tuesday's earlier scheduled match in which Torino were to play at Lazio was postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak at the Turin club.

Meanwhile, Sampdoria have gone into isolation after reporting a positive coronavirus case before their midweek clash with city rivals Genoa.

A statement from the Serie A club on Tuesday did not specify if a player or a member of staff had been affected.

Australian Associated Press