Manchester United staged a late and unlikely Champions League comeback to beat Juventus 1 – 2 in Turin on Wednesday night. Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 66th minute with an outstanding volley.
It was his first goal against Manchester United for Juventus. Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice against UTD for Madrid in 2013.
Then, he opted for the muted celebration, but not on Wednesday. Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to savour his strike, and what a strike it was.
Connecting onto a long ball from halfway, Ronaldo timed his run perfectly. The ball fell over his shoulder and he struck it perfectly, straight past de Gea.
It was a goal worthy of Ronaldo and worthy of a Juventus VS Manchester United fixture. After what had been a tense opening hour, it was just the spark the game needed.
Read: Champions League Qualification in Doubt for Liverpool After Belgrade Defeat
After that, Juventus wasted chances to go two, three, even four goals up. Juan Cuadrado and Miralem Pjanic both had opportunities to score. Cuadrado, in particular, should have done better when played through on goal by Ronaldo.
Then, in the 83rd minute, substitute Juan Mata provided another moment of true quality. Ashley Young ran over the ball on a free kick on the edge of the box. It wrong-footed the Juventus wall and keeper Wojciech Szcz?sny, allowing Mata to hit the top corner.
Three minutes later, Fellaini caused havoc from another free kick, leading to a goalmouth scramble. The ball was eventually put into the net by an Alex Sandro own goal, and UTD escaped Turin with three points.
After the game, Ronaldo seemed bitter at the result, and was critical of his former team.
“I was happy for the goal but I am a little bit disappointed,” Ronaldo told Viasport. “We should’ve won the game easily. Three, four goals. And Manchester didn’t do much, in my opinion.
“They create two chances, set-pieces, they know the English teams, they are always looking for the set-pieces but we will learn from our mistakes and we are still top of the group.”
After the game, Juventus are third favourites to win the Champions League at 6/1.
