Cristiano Ronaldo opens Serie A goal account for Juventus vs. Sassuolo

Cristiano Ronaldo finally scored his first two Serie A goals for Juventus on Sunday after his big-money move from Real Madrid over the summer.

Cristiano Ronaldo went scoreless in his first three Serie A matches for Juventus after making his €100 million transfer from Spanish giants Real Madrid after the World Cup. On Sunday at Juventus Stadium in Turin, that all changed when Ronaldo potted a brace for the defending champions as they remained undefeated in the new campaign.

Ronaldo got his first off a corner kick in the 50th minute. Sassuolo conceded the opportunity to the hosts, and Juventus quickly capitalized on the chance. Leonardo Bonucci made first contact with the ball, executing a lovely bicycle kick that was deflected inside the box to Sassuolo defender Gian Marco Ferrari at the far post.

Ferrari got a head to the ball, but succeeded only in clanging it off his own post. The deflection came right to the new Juventus star, who clinically tapped it with his right foot to leave Sassuolo goalkeeper Andrea Consigli unable to do anything in the situation.

The second goal came off Ronaldo’s left foot. Putting numbers forward on a counterattack, Juventus got Sassuolo into an odd-man situation. Emre Can carried the ball up the spine of the pitch, then slotted through a long pass to Ronaldo streaking up the left side. Ronaldo took the pass, settled his pace, and stepped just inside the 18-yard box before uncorking a left-footed blast that stayed low and left Consigli flat-footed on the line.

The two goals put the Portuguese goalscoring star at 400 career goals in European domestic league play through 517 career matches. He will get the chance to add to that total on September 23 when Juventus next face relegation risk Frosinone in Serie A play.

Frosinone has already given up 10 goals through their first four matches, so they could be ripe to serve as Ronaldo’s next Italian victims now that he has rediscovered his scoring touch in yet another top-flight UEFA league.