Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring for Juventus. [Source: Cristiano Ronaldo]

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first Serie A hat-trick as Juventus beat Cagliari 4-0 at home.

Ronaldo took his tally to eight goals in his last five league games.

The Portugal legend took advantage of a Ragnar Klavan error early in the second half to give the champions the lead, before scoring a penalty after Marko Rog fouled Paulo Dybala and then he set up Gonzalo Higuain to put Juve 3-0 up.

Amazing feeling to kick off 2020 with a hat-trick and a victory!⚽⚽⚽??#finoallafine #forzajuve pic.twitter.com/M8XD1ZQrhl

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) January 6, 2020

Moments later he got his 56th career hat-trick when he slipped the ball under goalkeeper Robin Olsen.

The 34-year-old is in his best scoring run since his £99.2m move from Real Madrid in 2018, scoring in each of his last five Serie A games.

Juventus overtake Inter Milan to go top in Serie A, but Inter can go back to the summit if they beat Napoli.

It was Ronaldo’s second hat-trick for Juventus, having scored three against Atletico Madrid in last season’s Champions League last-16 tie.

He has scored three hat-tricks for Portugal since then.

The former Manchester United forward is the first player since Alexis Sanchez to score a hat-trick in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A.

Meanwhile, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s return failed to inspire AC Milan as the fallen giants were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Sampdoria, failing to score for the third league game in a row.

The charismatic 38-year-old Swede was brought on to a rousing reception from the San Siro crowd in the 55th minute but Milan could still not find a way past their lowly opponents.

In his previous stint at the club, Ibrahimovic helped Milan win Serie A in 2010-11, their last major trophy.

He left for Paris St Germain at the end of the following season.

AC Milan also drew their previous home game 0-0, against Sassuolo, and this result left them a miserable 12th in the Serie A standings, below Verona on goal difference.

[Source: BBC And theguardian]