JUVENTUS can’t afford to give Cristiano Ronaldo a rest.

Massimiliano Allegri was forced to bring on Ronaldo for the final 25 minutes, while Juventus was trailing and down to 10 men. The Portugal superstar leveled but did not have time to completely rescue Juventus as it was held at Atalanta to 2-2 Wednesday.

It was only the second time this season that Juventus has dropped points in Serie A, but it ended up extending its advantage to nine points ahead of second-placed Napoli after Carlo Ancelotti’s side lost at Inter Milan 1-0 in dramatic fashion.

“All considered it’s a good point against a good team,” Allegri said. “We were good in not going out of the match when we went down to 10 men.”

The Bianconeri, as winter champions with two rounds to spare, took the opportunity to rest Ronaldo and some others. And it seemed as if that would not affect Juventus as it took the lead after less than two minutes when Atalanta defender Berat Djimsiti turned Alex Sandro’s innocuous-looking cross into his own net.

But Atalanta shook off that and leveled in the 24th. Duvan Zapata gathered a Papu Gomez throughball, turned Leonardo Bonucci and scored in a fifth successive Serie A match.

Matters started to go wrong for Juventus eight minutes into the second half when Rodrigo Bentancur was sent off following a second yellow card.

It took Atalanta just three minutes to exploit the numerical advantage as Zapata headed in a corner.

Allegri sent on Ronaldo in the 65th and he leveled 13 minutes later, heading in from point-blank range after Giorgio Chiellini flicked on a corner. Juventus also thought it got a stoppage-time winner but Bonucci’s goal was ruled out for offside.

Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly cost his side dearly as he was sent off and Inter scored a stoppage-time winner to close the gap to its opponent.

Napoli played the final 10 minutes a man short after Koulibaly received two yellow cards in quick succession, the second for sarcastically applauding the referee after being shown the first.

(SD-Agencies)