Cristiano Ronaldo
Juventus boss Maurizio Sarri says he cannot take responsibility for Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal-scoring hot streak, saying the credit must instead go to the player’s mother for ‘creating such a specimen’.
The Portuguese superstar looks untouchable after scoring seven goals in his last four games for the Italian league leaders as the Old Lady beat Roma in the Italian Cup.
Ronaldo broke the deadlock for Juve before goals from Rodrigo Bentancur and Leonardo Bonucci put the team on course for a comfortable victory before half-time, with Gianluigi Buffon scoring an own goal to give Roma hope.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner took his tally to 19 goals for the season with his strike on Wednesday night, but his manager Sarri said his electric form must go down to the woman who gave birth to him.
“I cannot take credit for Ronaldo’s current form, he told Rai Sport after the game. “You can only give credit to his mother for creating such a specimen!’
Sarri was running out of superlatives for his talisman, saying there weren’t many faults to his game aside from perhaps giving more defensively.
“Ronaldo is in extraordinary physical and mental condition, scoring with remarkable consistency. On an individual level, I don’t see what Ronaldo could improve. Perhaps in some defensive moments.”
While Juventus looked to have one foot in the Italian Cup semi-finals at the interval, Sarri was displeased with the second period as Roma got one back, saying the team “didn’t come out of the locker room”, but defended Buffon after his own goal.
“We had a good first half, but didn’t come out of the locker room for the start of the second,” he added.