A dogged Chievo side made life tough for Cristiano Ronaldo and his new Juventus team, as the Flying Donkeys narrowly lost 3-2 at the Stadio Bentegodi on Saturday evening, despite coming back from a goal down.
Another of Massmiliiano Allegri’s new signings Joao Cancelo also made his debut, alongside the returning Leonardo Bonucci. Emre Can started on the bench with Mattia Perin. Chievo had picked up just one point in their last 12 Serie A matches against Juventus, with that poor run continuing thanks to the Portuguese striker.
Things started as you’d expect for Juventus, as Miralem Pjanic swung in a freekick from the left which wasn’t cleat and eventually fell to Sami Khedira to poke home from close range. Juventus dominated possession, and by the half hours had over 80 percent, but were unable to breakthrough a deep Chievo backline.
Then, very much against the run of play, Mariusz Stepinski found himself free in the Juventus penalty area and headed into the top corner, giving Wojciech Szczesny no chance.
Eleven minutes into the second half, Emanuele Giaccherini was brought down in the Juventus penalty area by Cancelo, and the former Bianconeri man stepped up to slot him the spot kick. That lead lasted 21 minutes as a combination of the head of Bonucci and Mattia Bani levelled the score from a corner.
Then in dying moments Mario Mandzukic had the ball in the back of the net, but it was ruled out by VAR for a foul in the build up, but Federico Bernardeschi redirected a Douglas Costa cross into the net in time added on.
QUIET CRISTIANO
Ronaldo, Ronaldo where art thou Ronaldo. All the pre-game hype was about the Portuguese superstar, but in the end he failed to light up the Bentegodi, twice being denied by the brilliant Stefano Sorrentino. Every trick and flick was greeted with cheers from the Bianconeri-heavy crowd, and a loud roar when he almost attempted an overhead kick. But in the end, the starcrossed player and team didn’t quite make it work, though we did see some flashes of his combination work with Douglas Costa in particular.
BONUCCI IS BACK BUT NOT HIS BEST
In stark contrast to Ronaldo was Leonardo, who is not the golden boy Bianconeri old, he was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers from the crowd when his name was read out pre-game, and even when he scored – or not – the reaction wasn’t complete elation, at least from the crowd, who still haven’t forgiven him for joining AC Milan 12 months ago. In addition, he was perhaps at fault for Chievo’s first, as the road to redemption begins for the No.19.
