Serie A 2019-20 | Ciro Immobile extends lead over Cristiano Ronaldo in golden boot race
Going into this weekend's Serie A fixtures, Ciro Immobile was 6 goals ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku in the golden boot race. As Lazio was scheduled to play before Inter Milan and Juventus on Sunday, it gave Immobile the chance to extend his lead at the top to deal a psychological blow to his competitors.
This is exactly what the Italian did as he scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 (which included 2 penalties) thrashing against an inferior Sampdoria side. This put the Italian's tally at 23 league goals in just 19 appearances, which is the best in Europe's top-5 leagues.
Not only that, but it gave the Italian a whopping 9 goal lead over both Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku. However, whilst Lukaku failed to find the back of the net during Inter's unceremonious draw against Lecce, Ronaldo continued his recent stellar form and scored 2 goals against Parma to take his tally to 16 goals in 17 games.
Immobile's hat-trick means that he has widened the gap between him and Ronaldo compared to what it was before the weekend fixtures had begun.
Both players have tough fixtures next weekend in the Serie A, with Ronaldo facing Napoli away and Immobile facing Roma away. Whilst one cannot expect both players to score hat-tricks, it is essential for Ronaldo to score in these big games, as well as the smaller ones, if he has any hope of catching Immobile before the end of the season.
Whilst Immobile's overall goal-to-game ratio of 1.21 has been vastly superior to Ronaldo's 0.94, Ronaldo has enjoyed the better form in front of goal in Europe's top-5 leagues since the beginning of the December, with a ratio of 1.57 goals-per-game.
Nevertheless, one gets the feeling that Ronaldo's poor, injury-ridden, form at the start of the season may have put him at a disadvantage to outscore Immobile this season. Immobile is playing the best season of his career, statistically speaking, and isn't only leading the goalscoring charts in Italy, but all of Europe!
Also read: The rise and rise of Ciro Immobile