Cristiano Ronaldo hit the headlines before and after Juventus’ Serie A opener against Udinese on Sunday night, with his 94th minute winner ruled out by VAR, thus ensuring a share of the points in a 2-2 draw.
Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri surprisingly had Ronaldo on the bench, reportedly at the request of the Portuguese star who is seeking move from Turin.
Nevertheless, Juventus raced into a two-goal lead with Paulo Dybala, who had the captain’s armband, scoring early on, then assisting for Juan Cuadrado. It looked like the evening would be fairly straight forward from there on out, it was anything but.
After the break, two mistakes from goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny allowed Udinese back into the game. First the Pole gave away a penalty which Roberto Pereyra slide home. Then, Szczesny was put under pressure from Stefano Okaka and rattled the ball off the striker into Gerard Deulofeu’s path and he levelled.
That said, it looked like Juventus had grabbed three points right at the death when Cristiano Ronaldo leapt above the entire Udinese backline and nodded home for his first goal of the season. However, after VAR review, the No.7 was deemed to have been a fraction offside as the ball was played and thus the goal was disallowed.
