Ronaldo scores but Juventus’ perfect start ended by Genoa

Milan, October 21 

Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to net 400 goals across Europe’s top five leagues. It wasn’t enough on Saturday to maintain Juventus’ perfect start to the season.

Ronaldo, who has been accused of rape in a civil lawsuit in the United States, scored in the 1-1 draw against Genoa. It was his fifth Serie A goal in nine matches. Ronaldo has 311 goals in La Liga for Real Madrid, and 84 in the English Premier League for Manchester United.

Juventus won all of their previous 10 matches across Serie A and the Champions League. Though Juve’s lead in Italy was cut to four points after Napoli won at Udinese 3-0, coach Massimiliano Allegri believed this result would help his side for arguably their toughest test yet, Manchester United on Tuesday in Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford. 

“We drifted out of the game after a good start to the second half and, instead of making it 2-0, we let them make it 1-1,” Allegri said. 

“This isn’t good, because it’s with matches like this that titles are lost. After 10 minutes of the second half, we were already thinking about Manchester. We needed to have more focus. But it’s a draw that serves us well. It’ll get our feet back to earth and help us understand that, to win matches, you need sacrifice and hard work.”

10-man Bayern end winless streak

Wolfsburg: Ten-man Bayern Munich ended their four-match winless streak on Saturday as Robert Lewandowski scored twice in a 3-1 win. Bayern leapt from sixth to third in the Bundesliga, four points behind Borussia Dortmund who routed Stuttgart 4-0 with Paco Alcacer claiming his seventh goal in four Bundesliga games.  

Henry suffers defeat on Monaco return

Paris: Thierry Henry suffered defeat in his first match as a head coach when his 10-man Monaco side slumped to a 2-1 loss at Strasbourg on Saturday to drop into the Ligue 1 relegation zone, while Paris Saint-Germain eased to a 10th straight victory to start their title defence. — AFP