In the absence of Juventus’s season being a success, their star man grabbed some individual glory for himself Cristiano Ronaldo achieved perfection on Sunday. One goal with his head, another with his right foot and finally a third with his left. A perfect hat-trick, in the language of football. Perhaps it felt a little less flawless to the Cagliari goalkeeper Alessio Cragno, who bled from the chin when the forward’s studs caught him in the 14th minute, before the last two of those goals were scored.It was a challenge that deserved a red card, Ronaldo raising his boot above shoulder height as he challenged for a cross. The referee Gianpaolo Calvarese opted for a yellow. A sliding doors moment that...
Two goals against Lazio showed again that the Spaniard and Juve are a happy fit and, at €10m, Andrea Pirlo has got a bargain With their title hopes hanging by a thread, Juventus turned once more to their Iberian saviour. You know the one: tall, dark hair, a repeat Champions League winner from his time at Real Madrid. A forward who has lifted silverware in Spain, Italy and England and who bangs in the goals for his country at a rate of one in every other game.He had rescued them once already last week, coming off the bench to break a second-half stalemate at Spezia. On Saturday, he delivered a more remarkable rescue: setting up a goal then scoring two...
Willingness to believe in the cult of the winner is worsening the plight of Barcelona and Juventus On Tuesday, Juventus might overcome a 2-1 deficit against Porto in the Champions League. On Wednesday, Barcelona almost certainly won’t come back from 4-1 down to beat Paris Saint-Germain. Both clubs were comprehensively outplayed in the first legs, both are burdened by an ageing and expensive superstar, both have found the cracks in their financial planning exposed by the pandemic. At some point the narratives of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will decouple, but not now, not yet.Football deals badly with mortality. It can be brutal in dealing with those with whom it has finished. Bill Shankly couldn’t even tell Ian St John...
The pressure on Andrea Pirlo’s team to deliver in the Supercoppa had been intense. Juve’s talisman carried out the delivery Andrea Pirlo used to love winding up Gennaro Gattuso. In his autobiography, the now Juventus manager described his former teammate as “my favourite target … despite the fact that he tried on numerous occasions to kill me with a fork”. Pirlo recalled bursting out of Gattuso’s wardrobe to scare him in the middle of the night and stealing his phone to message a Milan director with an offer to swap his sister for an improved contract.It is one thing to tease, though, and another to defeat. If Pirlo derived any additional pleasure from claiming the first trophy of his managerial...
Internazionale outclassed Juventus on Sunday night in a 2-0 victory to strike a significant blow in the title raceIt was a weekend that promised fireworks. Lazio against Roma on Friday night, and Inter hosting Juventus on Sunday: a derby that defines Italy’s capital city, leading into a game that has long been billed as the Derby d’Italia – a derby for all of Italy. Related: Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend action Vidal accidentally kissed the Juventus badge before kick off pic.twitter.com/VduftSgVN4 Related: Messi sent off as Athletic Bilbao sink Barcelona to win Spanish Super Cup Continue reading...