Cristiano Ronaldo’s second goal of the night rescued a 2-2 draw for 10-man Juventus away to AS Roma in Serie A on Sunday, after Jordan Veretout had twice put the capital club in front.
Veretout and Ronaldo netted penalties after both teams were penalised for handball, and the French midfielder then struck his second of the night in first-half stoppage time.
Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot was shown a second yellow card to leave his side a man down for the final third of the match, but a towering Ronaldo header earned a point for the Italian champions in Andrea Pirlo’s second game in charge.
The result leaves Juventus in fifth place, with four points from their opening two league games.
“It was a step backwards, but as a team we are a work in progress,” Pirlo told Sky Italia. “We haven’t had the chance to try much out in pre-season because there were practically no friendly matches.”
Pirlo was a surprising choice to succeed sacked coach Maurizio Sarri in August, as he had no previous coaching experience and had been appointed as the club’s Under-23 coach just a week earlier.
He oversaw an impressive 3-0 win against Sampdoria on his debut last weekend, but pointed out that new signings like striker Alvaro Morata and midfielder Arthur Melo are yet to be fully integrated.
“In the end it was one point gained,” he said. “Morata arrived two days ago, Arthur hasn’t played for six months and needs to adapt to Italian football, even though he did well when he came on.”
Pirlo was questioned about Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan side, who appear to be the most likely challengers to Juventus in their quest for a 10th consecutive Serie A title.
The post Cristiano Ronaldo double earned a point for 10 man Juventus against Roma first appeared on InsideSport.
https://ift.tt/30d1uwU
Comments
Post a Comment