ROME (AP) — Nothing seems to motivate Cristiano Ronaldo more than the suggestion that other players are better than him.
That was evident when Ronaldo skipped the UEFA player of the year award ceremony in August when he learned that former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric gained the honor.
Now, amid reports that he's been left off the podium for the Ballon d'Or prize to be presented next month, teammates say Ronaldo trained harder than ever this week.
The training paid off, as Ronaldo scored the opening goal and helped set up the second as Juventus extended its unbeaten start in Serie A with a 2-0 win over promoted Spal on Saturday.
Croatia international Modric and France teammates Kylian Mbappe Raphael Varane are reportedly the finalists for the Ballon d'Or — which would mean that panelists relied heavily on the World Cup, where France beat Croatia for the title.
Before transferring to Juventus, Ronaldo helped Real Madrid to its third straight Champions League title last season, and led the competition with 15 goals — five more than anyone else.
Ronaldo's latest score gave him nine in Serie A, matching Genoa's Krzysztof Piatek for tops in the league.
Near the half-hour mark, Ronaldo beat everyone to redirect in a free kick from Miralem Pjanic.
In the 60th, Ronaldo's pull back on a counterattack set up a shot for Douglas Costa, whose effort was swatted into the path of Mario Mandzukic, who scored from the rebound.
All players, coaches and referees had red marks painted on their faces as part of a Serie A campaign to combat violence against women.
Kathryn Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit in September in Nevada claiming Ronaldo raped her in his Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. Police reopened an investigation into the allegation at her request. Ronaldo has denied any wrongdoing.
Juventus moved nine points ahead of second-place Napoli, which hosts Chievo Verona on Sunday.
INCONSISTENT ROMA
Roma's lack of consistency was highlighted in a 1-0 loss at relegation-threatened Udinese.
It was the third time this season that Roma had been beaten by a team near the bottom of the standings, along with defeats against Bologna and Spal.
It wasn't the buildup that Roma wanted ahead of a visit by Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. However, Madrid struggled even more on Saturday, losing at Eibar 3-0 in the Spanish league.
In Udine, Rodrigo De Paul collected a backheel pass from Ignacio Pussetto and chipped over onrushing Roma goalkeeper Antonio Mirante early in the second half.
Udinese almost had a second but the VAR disallowed a goal from Pussetto, ruling he controlled De Paul's pass with his arm.
Roma controlled 77 percent of the possession in the first half.
"A team that dominated for an hour has to score a goal. It has to," Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco said. "A team that wants to become big and strong has to make that level of possession and pressure count. That's what makes me angry. Evidently we haven't matured enough yet."
Roma had beaten Udinese in all 10 of their previous meetings. What's more, Udinese hadn't won in more than two months and was playing its first match since Davide Nicola was hired to replace fired coach Julio Velazquez. Roma is seventh overall.
Making matters worse is that playmaker Lorenzo Pellegrini, one of Roma's most dangerous players against Udinese, exited the match late with an apparent muscular problem.
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