Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo put a positive spin on his team’s first loss of the season.
Ronaldo, who has been playing and scoring regularly despite facing a rape allegation in the United States, gave his team the lead in a Champions League clash against former club Manchester United on Wednesday, but Juve still dramatically fell 2-1 after late goals handed the Premier League side the points.
The Serie A leaders, who next play at AC Milan on Sunday, had won all three of their previous matches in Europe and 10 of 11 in the league.
“It’s never nice to lose, but maybe this defeat comes at the best possible time,” Ronaldo said. “We have a great team, we’re top of the group and I’m sure we’ll go through as group winners.”
On Wednesday, despite Ronaldo’s superb opener to give his team the lead, Juventus again failed to finish off the opposition.
Juve, who have won the past seven Serie A titles, almost conceded a late equaliser against Cagliari last weekend before scoring again and winning 3-1. And in Manchester two weeks ago, their dominance was not reflected by the 1-0 victory.
“If we want to get to the final in Madrid at the end of the season, we have to learn from tonight because it comes down to the small details,” Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini said. “We should have won this game comfortably.
“We’re still in the mix and it’s better to lose now than further down the line but we must do better. It will bring us down a peg or two. This sort of thing had been in the air for a few games and we botched up big time tonight.”
Milan, who will be missing several players because of injury for Sunday’s match, have won their past three league games to move up to fourth in Serie A.
“We need to pick ourselves up right away because we have a massive game in Milan on Sunday,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “We need to keep working.”
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