Sarri full of praise for hat-trick hero Ronaldo

Date: 6th January 2020 at 7:06pm
Written by:

After scoring his first hat-trick for Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo was praised by coach Maurizio Sarri, who indicated that the end of knee problems have helped the Portuguese star.

Ronaldo bagged three in the second half, and Gonzalo Higuain the other, as Cagliari were put to the sword 4-0 at the Allianz Stadium on Monday afternoon.

“Ronaldo doesn’t have any more issues with his knee,” Sarri told the press. “And mentally I think he is a lot calmer, he is smiling and more involved.

“That makes all the difference.”

In terms of the game itself, Juventus improved after the break with Wojciech Szcz?sny a mere spectator for the majority.

“We had a good game in terms of our dribbling,” Sarri said. “In the second half, our attacks were better than they were in the first.

“Getting more shots on goal off in relation to the amount of the play we had.

“[Adrien] Rabiot had a good game, and improved. I gave him a more difficult task by playing him on the right side, given he is left-footed.

“Little by little we got the better of them, and all the work done in the first half was realised in the second.

“We managed to make use of the attacking areas better”

Matthijs de Ligt again found himself on the bench for Juve, with Merit Demiral getting the nod to partner Leonardo Bonucci in defence.

“It’s a straightforward situation,” Sarri stated. “I am even more convinced that he [De Ligt] will become the best defender in the world.

“However, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of a 19-year-old who came here.

“He has to play, learn the language and everything else. It seems like an obvious situation.

“Right now we have Demiral who is in great physical and mental condition and to me it seems like a coach has to rotate to keep the players fresh.”

 

Comments are closed.