After a long summer full of transfer speculations, Cristiano Ronaldo is set to make his pre-season debut in the Gamper Trophy on Sunday.
Juventus will be hosted by Barcelona for the friendly encounter, and whilst Leo Messi won’t be present on the pitch – following the club’s shocking exit announcement on Thursday – his old nemesis should be ready to go.
Following his participation with Portugal in Euro 2020, CR7 took an extended summer vacation – reminiscently to the majority of the first team stars – thus missing the first two friendly encounters against Cesena and Monza.
But according to la Gazzetta dello Sport via TuttoJuve, the Portuguese should lead the Old Lady’s attack in the prestigious clash on Sunday.
With Max Allegri adamant on playing in 4-3-3 tactical formation, Ronaldo is expected to be joined in attack by Dejan Kulusevski and Alvaro Morata.
Thus, the 36-year-old should start from the left, with the Spaniard taking the center forward role, supported by the young Swede from the right wing.
Although the report doesn’t mention the rest of the lineup, we expect Aaron Ramsey to start in his new role as a Regista, probably with Weston McKennie alongside him, and either Rodrigo Bentancur or Filippo Ranocchia completing the midfield.
In the defense, we can expect the likes of Radu Dragusin, Daniele Rugani, Mattia De Sciglio and Luca Pellegrini to be tested once more, as Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Alex Sandro and Danilo having only joined the squad earlier this week.
see if ronaldo feels like showing up. it`s easy to score goals whe your focus of the whole team`s sacrifice, and a false equivalency. Allegri will focus on Dybala but shouldn`t he be building around Chiesa, too? we have a Boss again. pirlo= puff pastry, sarri = told what to do by goalkeepers.
It’s going to be a tough game despite messi not playing the game
We’ll watch him closely… until the last minute if he will finish the all 90 minutes as the Ronaldo we knew..s besides it’s a friendly..