Cristiano Ronaldo faces Sassuolo on Sunday still chasing his maiden competitive goal for Italian champions Juventus before he returns to Spain for the first time in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Bolstered by five-time winner Ronaldo, Juventus begin their quest for the Champions League title which has eluded them since 1996 in Valencia next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Despite a seventh straight Serie A title last season the Turin giants plunged into the red with a 19.2-million-euro ($22.4m) loss as a result of their European quarter-final exit.<\/p>\n
Serie A returns after a two-week international break with former Real Madrid player Ronaldo having skipped Portugal duty to focus on his new club, just as his teammate, Croatia\u2019s World Cup runner-up Mario Mandzukic, did.<\/p>\n
During the break the 33-year-old was pictured relaxing on board his yacht off St Tropez on the French Riveria.<\/p>\n
\u201cVitamin D,\u201d wrote the five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner under a photo of him lounging on the deck of his yacht.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs my teammates say, back to reality, work done,\u201d he later posted. \u201cFeeling good!! Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Massimiliano Allegri says he is not concerned that Ronaldo has failed to find the net despite 23 shots at goal in three games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes time. We\u2019ll all be fresher after the break and that\u2019s when the real season starts,\u201d said Allegri.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo had to wait until his fourth game for Real Madrid last season to get his first league goal.<\/p>\n
Germany midfielder Sami Khedira pointed out in an interview after his contract at Juventus was extended this week that the Portuguese star was brought in not to rack up goals but to make the difference in the Champions League and turn \u201cdreams into reality\u201d.<\/p>\n
Juventus beat Sassuolo 7-0 in their final match last season, but the club from Modena have made a strong start this campaign and are just behind the champions in the table after two wins and a draw.<\/p>\n
Allegri will be keen to rotate his side with a crowded schedule of seven games in 21 days, and defender Andrea Barzagli sidelined with a calf problem.<\/p>\n
Argentine Paolo Dybala \u2014 Juventus\u2019s top Serie A scorer last season \u2014 and Brazilian Douglas Costa look set to start on the bench.<\/p>\n
Despite being overshadowed by the arrival of Ronaldo, Dybala insists he feels fortunate to play in the same team as the five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told myself after I was lucky to play with Lionel Messi in the national team, I have now had the opportunity to play alongside Ronaldo,\u201d said Dybala.<\/p>\n
Napoli, Roma and Inter Milan also have Champions League games on their minds.<\/p>\n
Roma host Chievo on Sunday after their loss to AC Milan before the break, and ahead of a trip to Spain to take on holders Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Inter Milan play at home against Parma on Saturday before playing Tottenham Hotspur in the San Siro in their first European game since the 2011-2012 season.<\/p>\n
Luciano Spalletti\u2019s Inter \u2014 with last year\u2019s star forward Mauro Icardi fighting to shake off a muscular injury \u2014 are coming off a 3-0 win over Bologna after taking just a point from their first two games.<\/p>\n
Carlo Ancelotti will look to put his first defeat as Napoli coach behind him when last season\u2019s runners-up host Fiorentina before playing Red Star in Belgrade on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Fiorentina have won two games with their first match against Sampdoria postponed because of the Genoa bridge disaster.<\/p>\n
AC Milan head to Cagliari in Sardinia with former Juventus forward Gonzalo Higuain also waiting to score his first goal for his new club.<\/p>\n
Fixtures (all time GMT)<\/p>\n
Saturday<\/p>\n
Inter Milan v Parma (1300), Napoli v Fiorentina (1600), Frosione v Sampdoria (1830)<\/p>\n
Sunday<\/p>\n
Roma v Chievo (1030), \u00a0Genoa v Bologna, Juventus v Sassuolo, Udinese v Torino, Empoliv Lazio (1600), Cagliari v AC Milan (1830)<\/p>\n
Monday<\/p>\n
SPAL v Atalanta (1830)<\/p>\n
(AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cristiano Ronaldo faces Sassuolo on Sunday still chasing his maiden competitive goal for Italian champions Juventus before he returns to Spain for the first time in the Champions League. Bolstered by five-time winner Ronaldo, Juventus begin their quest for the Champions League title which has eluded them since 1996 in Valencia next Wednesday. Despite a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[221,1283,1598,1284,1285],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-champions-league","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-goal","tag-juve","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2182,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/2182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}