Alessandro Del Piero and Amauri scored early in each half to lead Juventus over Real Madrid 2-1 and into the lead of their Champions League group.

Juventus, who had not won a game in a month, came in for a lot of praise from coach Claudio Ranieri after their 2-1 win over Real Madrid who were coming off an unbeaten streak of eight matches.

Del Piero, who has scored 41 goals in the Champions League, took a pass from Amauri in the fifth and beat Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas with a hard shot from outside the area. Early in the second half, Amauri's header from close range bounced off Madrid's Gabriel Heinze and past Casillas.

Ruud van Nistelrooy got one back in the 66th with a header.

"Tonight we were a little bit lucky, but we played well and didn't give them the space to play like they are used to," Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri said. "Real is used to starting a game at 1,000 kilometers an hour and we wanted to do that to them tonight, and that is what we did by starting with an incredible first 20 minutes."

"We want to finish first in the group, so we will have to beat Juventus in Madrid," Madrid coach Bernd Schuster said.

Juventus were coming off a 2-1 loss to Napoli on Saturday that dropped the Turin club seven points behind league leaders Inter and fed speculation that Ranieri's job could be in jeopardy.

Club officials voiced their support for Ranieri on Monday, as they have after several other key losses this season, but the Italian media had reported that the coach could get booted if the team did not return to form soon.

Ranieri, who had been heavily criticised for taking out Del Piero for a defender midway through the second half against Napoli, replaced Amauri with striker Vincenzo Iaquinta, who scored twice against BATE. Del Piero played the entire game.

Juventus have now found the net twice in each of their last two Champions League games.

"One win doesn't change everything," Ranieri said. "We still have a lot of work to do. I was convinced of this before and I am still convinced now. We know we are not doing so well this year and we have been criticised, sometimes I think excessively. But we want to do better than last year and what's important is to keep fighting and that's what we are doing."