Ronaldo looks to end his goal drought – but he’s still by far the most efficient Juve player

Andrea Pirlo and his Juventus team relish the matches against Italy’s strongest teams – and they usually do well in those. But their shortcomings have been exposed by some of Serie A’s lesser teams, which is untypical of Juventus. Their title rivals Inter and Milan have both won 32 points in the games against teams from the bottom half of the table, while Roma have got 34. Compared to them, the Turin club has underperformed. They only won 23 points, albeit having played two games fewer.

Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t scored in the last three games, which is a long goal drought by his standards. But despite not finding the net lately, the Portuguese star is still Juventus’ top scorer – by some distance. His 16 goals is more than what the remaining forwards’ combined tally. Federico Chiesa is second in Juve’s goalscoring charts with six and Alvaro Morata, Paulo Dybala, Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Bernardeschi all far behind. This fact only underlines the importance of Cristiano Ronaldo to Pirlo’s team.

Ronaldo want more goals (©Reuters)

The home team is expected to overcome bottom-of-the-table Crotone then the teams meet at Juventus Stadium, but they will have to make do without five important players. Paulo Dybala, Giorgio Chiellini, Juan Cuardado, Leonardo Bonucci and Arthur are all injured, while Alvaro Morata is still recovering from covid-19. This means that the former Arsenal and Cardiff City midfielder Aaron Ramsey will be given a start along with the likes of Dejan Kuluševski, Rodrigo Bentancur and Weston McKennie.

Juventus first slip-up of the season came back in October when they were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by Crotone at Stadio Ezio Scida. With the black and whites currently sixth in the table, they will have to start picking up wins. The title already looks like too big of an ask for them, with Champions League qualification a more realistic target.

Crotone were defeated in seven out of their last eight league matches and are currently eight points adrift of that much-desired 17th place. Remaining unbeaten in their second match against the champions would be considered a minor miracle for the Calabria region side. Their manager Giovanni Stroppa showed defiance ahead of the trip to Turin. He clearly believes in his players.

“We’re aware that we’re about to face one of the strongest teams but we’re also aware that we’re able to compete and hurt the opposition. We are still alive, we are fighting for survival and I’m convinced that this team can play against everyone and preserve Serie A status”.

SERIE A - ROUND 23

Friday

Fiorentina - Spezia 3-0 (0-0)

/Vlahovic 48, Castrovilli 64, Eysseric 82/

Cagliari - Torino 0-1 (0-0)

/Bremer 76/

Saturday

Lazio - Sampdoria 0-1 (0-0)

/Luis Alberto 24/

Genoa - Verona 2-2 (0-1)

/Shomurodov 48, Badelj 90 - Ilic 17, Faraoni 61/

Sassuolo - Bologna 1-1 (0-1)

/Caputo 52 - Soriano 17/

Sunday

Parma - Udinese 2-2 (2-0)

/Cornelius 3, Kucka 32 - Okaka 64, Nuytinck 80/

Milan - Inter 0-3 (0-1)

/Martinez 5, 57, Lukaku 66/

Atalanta - Napoli 4-2 (0-0)

/Zapata 52, Gosens 64, Muriel 71, Romero 79 - Zielinski 58, Gosens 75 og/

Benevento - Roma 0-0

Monday

22.45: Juventus - Crotone