Ronaldo slammed for an “unforgivable” mistake: He was afraid of the ball

It happens every time. When Juventus loses – Cristiano Ronaldo is the one to blame. Not always true, but life`s like that when you are among the best in the history of the sport. Although, this wave of critiques is something new even for the Portuguese star. Ronaldo was slammed after Juventus`s Champions League exit to Porto.

Ronaldo was much to blame. Firstly, he was nowhere to be seen, even though he assisted Federico Chiesa for Juve`s first goal. It all fell when, in extra time, a Sergio Oliveira free-kick squirmed under the wall, where both Cristiano Ronaldo and Adrien Rabiot jumped up, turning their backs to the ball.

Juve`s legend Fabio Capello was shocked.

“That was an unforgivable error. In my day, you chose the players who went into the wall and they couldn’t be someone afraid of the ball. They were scared of the ball and jumped away from it, turning their backs. That’s unforgivable,” said Capello, now a Sky Sport Italia pundit.

Capello also blasted veterans for not turning up to post-match interviews, as only Matthijs de Ligt, Federico Chiesa and Juan Cuadrado spoke to the channel.

“You see only the youngest players actually stepped in and showed their face during the tough moments. In this team, there are some veterans who turn up when they win to take the credit, then are nowhere to be seen when they lose.”

Gary Lineker ironically added: “We’ve finally found something Ronaldo can’t do: stand still in a wall”.

Crazy football! Porto knocks Juventus out of Champions League!

Rio Ferdinand continued with attacks speaking on BT Sport.

“All three of them were at fault – turning their back and jumping out of the way. The whole thing was a catalogue of errors,”, Ferdinand said while legendary Alessandro Del Piero clearly stated: Juventus has to change.

“There has to be a change. It’s not up to us to say what needs to change, but evidently Juventus need to swallow this poison pill, look at the positives and focus on Serie A. There has to be a reaction. There has to be a moment of change.”

The question is: change what? Coach Andrea Pirlo has no other option but to defend his team. Especially Ronaldo. With Ronaldo unhappy Juventus has no chance of winning for “scudetto”. But Pirlo also had to admit: it was a mistake.

“We choose the players to go in the wall. It had never happened before that they’d turn around, maybe they felt it was so far out that they didn’t sense the danger. It was a mistake, it usually doesn’t happen, the players didn’t feel it was a dangerous situation and conceded a goal,” Pirlo said.

And what about his own job?

“I was brought in for a more ample approach, a project that was always meant to develop over several years, so I am not concerned.”

Somehow, we don`t actually believe him.