Ronaldo fires blank as Juventus suffer first league defeat of season
Cristiano Ronaldo fired blank as Juventus fell to its first league defeat of the season after the 10-man Bianconeri lost 3-0 at home to relegation-threatened Fiorentina to slip further behind in Serie A on Tuesday night.
Dusan Vlahovic got Fiorentina off to the perfect start when he scored in the third minute. An Alex Sandro own goal and a late effort from former Juventus defender Martin Caceres sealed the match for Fiorentina, which recorded its first win since Cesare Prandelli returned as coach.
Juventus had to play most of the match at a numerical disadvantage after former Fiorentina winger Juan Cuadrado was sent off in the 18th minute.
”We came on with the wrong attitude and when you go onto the field like this, you get into these bad situations, then we were down to 10 men and at that point it became difficult to recover,” Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said.
”Occasionally it happens that you are not 100%, but in the second half we came out with the right mentality. It could have gone better. Now we have to start again with desire, thinking about the mistakes we made and carrying our project forward.”
Juventus had started the day in third place, four points behind Serie A leader AC Milan. But it began the match seven points behind – with a game in hand – after Napoli’s appeal against a default loss to the Bianconeri was upheld.
A well-deserved MVP of the Month of November, Powered by @officialpes for @Cristiano! 🔥🥇#JuveFiorentina #CR7JUVE #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/smlWjA9gLH
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) December 22, 2020
After the loss to Fiorentina, it was still seven points behind Milan but having played the same number of matches as the Rossoneri.
Milan is now the only remaining unbeaten team in Serie A.
Juventus heard the result of the appeal a few hours before kickoff in Turin. And its day swiftly went from bad to worse when Vlahovic ran onto Franck Ribery’s through ball and chipped it over the onrushing Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
Juve’s hopes of getting something from the match diminished just a quarter of an hour later when Cuadrado challenged Gaetano Castrovilli. The referee initially only booked Cuadrado but then showed him a straight red after looking at the incident again on video review.
Cristiano Ronaldo had a headed goal disallowed for offside at the start of the second half.
FT | ⏱ | Final result at the Allianz.#JuveFiorentina #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/eRZihVsglz
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) December 22, 2020
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Both sides had chances to score before Cristiano Biraghi’s cross bounced in off the unfortunate Sandro in the 76th.
Biraghi also set up Fiorentina’s third, rolling across for Caceres to tap into the back of the net.