Cristiano Ronaldo’s two goals lead Juventus to defeat Sassuolo 2-1 in the Italian League at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday (16/9). Juventus had experienced difficulties in the first round when facing Sassuolo. Sassuolo’s disciplinary defense made the Bianconeri not get much chance of firing at Sassuolo who was escorted by Andrea Consigli.
But Sassuolo’s toughness collapsed early in the second half. When the second round had only been running for five minutes, Ronaldo successfully shocked Sassuolo goalkeeper. CR7 got a ‘windfall’ because he received the ball in front of goal after the Sassuolo defender made a mistake when throwing the ball. The ball that was thrown out of the pole and rolled to Ronaldo who did not experience difficulty slashing the ball into the opponent’s goal.
After winning 1-0, Juventus tried to add advantage. Max Alllegri decided to pull Mario Mandzukic and put Douglas Costa to increase Bianconeri’s offensive power in the 61st minute. Ronaldo then re-listed his name on the scoreboard in the 65th minute. In a fast attack, Emre Can handed the ball to Ronaldo. Seeing that the shooting space was quite open, Ronaldo fired a hard shot horizontally which made Consigli only stunned to see the ball into the goal.
Ten minutes later, Ronaldo had fallen in the Sassuolo penalty box but referee Daniele Chiffi did not consider it a violation. Sassuolo then had a threat when Alfred Duncan fired hard on Juventus. But Wojciech Szczesny can block the ball well.
In the 77th minute, Ronaldo wasted the opportunity to create a hat trick. He is in a free position when he receives a cross. But Ronaldo’s shot was wide of the target. Because of the annoyance of failing to fulfill this opportunity, Ronaldo’s goal was to kick the goalpost as an expression of his disappointment.
Five minutes later, Ronaldo again wasted the opportunity to score the third goal. He got a wild ball from Joao Cancelo’s shot which was blocked by Consigli. Ronaldo then tried to open a shot but his direction widened.
During injury time, Sassuolo managed to reduce the lag to 1-2 by a goal from Khouma Boubacar. Boubacar heads Cristian Dell’Orco’s ball. At the end of the match, Douglas Costa was sent off by the referee but Sassuolo did not have enough time to catch up.
Juventus won 2-1 over Sassuolo at the end of the match.
Quoted from Opta, Ronaldo took 320 minutes to get his first goal for Juventus. In addition, Ronaldo’s first goal with Bianconeri was obtained after he released 28 shots on target. In the match against Sassuolo, other Juventus players were seen giving full support to Ronaldo. Feeds in the Sassuolo majority defense make Ronaldo the final goal. After the match against Sassuolo, Juventus will begin their journey in the Champions League by visiting Valencia headquarters on Wednesday (19/9).
