Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to salvage a point for 10-man Juventus in a 2-2 draw at Roma as Napoli hammered Genoa 6-0 in Serie A on Sunday, reports AFP.
Champions Juventus were trailing 2-1 and a man down after an hour at the Stadio Olimpico after a Jordan Veretout brace for the hosts and Adrien Rabiot's sending off. But a towering Ronaldo header grabbed the equaliser in the 69th minute to avoid handing new Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo a first defeat. "Going behind complicated things but we got an important point," said Ronaldo.
"We're at the start of the season, with a new coach. But the team are working well, I'm confident for the future. "Pirlo? It's still early days, but we're working with a smile, that's important." Edin Dzeko was back in the Roma front line after his move to Juventus fell through, the Bosnian having missed last week's trip to Verona which ended in a forfeit defeat for the capital side for fielding an unregistered player.
Instead new Juventus signing Alvaro Morata got his first start after his move from Atletico Madrid earlier this week. But the champions were pushed hard by the hosts with Veretout opening from the spot in the 31st minute after a Rabiot handball. The French midfielder added a second shortly before the break just after Ronaldo had equalised for the first time. Another handball, this time Lorenzo Pellegrini's, resulted in Juventus being awarded a penalty allowing Ronaldo to slot in.
The Portuguese got his second with 20 minutes to go when his head met a Danilo cross seven minutes after Rabiot was sent off for a second yellow card. "Ronaldo gives us a lot, not just for the goals, in the end when we were down a man he ran a lot," said Pirlo. "We have taken a step back but we are a team under construction. "Unfortunately, we didn't have time to test game solutions in the pre-season, so we have to do these tests during these matches.
"Nevertheless, it is a point gained." Roma coach Paulo Fonseca added: "We had a good match, but I'm not satisfied with the result."
