Juventus took another step towards defending their Serie A crown this afternoon with a 2-1 win against Sampdoria.

The Bianconeri have won the last seven Scudettos on offer, with Max Allegri also winning four doubles on the trot.

Juve now sit on 53 points after just 19 rounds of games, the first time that has ever been done in the history of Italian football.

And with Cristiano Ronaldo banging in goals for fun - he now has 13 in Serie A alone - you wouldn't bank against them breaking the 100-point barrier for the second time in their history.

However, their 17th win of the 2018/19 season certainly wasn't an easy one.

Sampdoria arrived in Turin on a seriously impressive run of form, with Fabio Quagliarella scoring in his previous eight Serie A games.

The evergreen striker increased that run to nine with an equalising penalty, but Ronaldo stepped up with one of his own to win the match in the 65th minute.

The incident was reviewed by VAR and it still looks controversial. You can watch for yourself below.

JUVE'S PENALTY

https://twitter.com/ElevenSports_UK/status/1079002176461123584

Not exactly the clearest handball you'll ever see and it looked very unintentional from Alex Ferrari.

But the controversy didn't stop there, with Riccardo Saponara having an injury-time equaliser ruled out by VAR for offside.

It was a sweet strike from the Italian and you can watch the incident below.

SAMP'S DISALLOWED GOAL

https://twitter.com/ElevenSports_UK/status/1079007483946041346

A very harsh call indeed.

As such, Sampdoria made their feelings clear in their tweet after the game.

SAMP SPEAK OUT ON TWITTER

https://twitter.com/sampdoria_en/status/1079007579433512962

Sampdoria wrote: "Full time in Turin. #JuveSamp ends in a home win, thanks to a debatable #Ronaldo penalty and a helping hand by #VAR. Hard lines."

They're not happy with the events in Turin.

Sampdoria have now lost ground in the race to catch Lazio for the final Champions League spot in Serie A.