The Juventus forward believes his side have what it takes to come back from their first leg deficit
Cristiano Ronaldo says Juventus are not worried about being eliminated from the Champions League despite losing to Lyon in their round of 16 first leg.
The Ligue 1 side pulled off arguably the biggest upset in the competition so far when they beat Maurizio Sarri’s men 1-0 on Wednesday.
Lucas Tousart scored the only goal of the game as the Bianconeri set several unwanted records at both ends of the pitch.
The away side dominated possession but struggled in the final third, failing to register a single shot on target over the course of the 90 minutes.
The evening also saw Lyon beat Juventus in European competition for the very first time, having lost three of their previous four such encounters and managing just a single draw.
Juve welcome their French opponents to Turin in the return leg in mid-March, and their star forward is confident that the hosts can progress to the next stage of the competition.
“We’re not worried about exiting the Champions League,” said Ronaldo.
“It’s the most difficult competition there is in this sport. I’m impatient to play the return leg at Allianz Stadium.
“I’m convinced that we will qualify”.
Juventus suffered their first defeat of their European campaign at the hands of Lyon after going unbeaten in the group stages, winning five and drawing once in Group D.
Their campaign began with a dramatic 2-2 draw at Atletico Madrid, with Sarri’s side then beating Bayer Leverkusen and Lokomotiv Moscow both home and away to clinch top spot.
Ronaldo has two goals in the competition this time around, but sits top of the all-time leaderboard with 128, 14 ahead of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.
The pair have dominated the standings in recent years, with the Portuguese attacker claiming the top scorer award in three of the past four seasons.
Messi does, however, hold the record for the most Champions League goals for a single club, with all of his 114 coming in the colours of Barcelona, compared to Ronaldo’s 106 for Real Madrid prior to his switch to Italy.
Juve’s next game sees them host Inter on Sunday evening, a match that will be played behind closed doors in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Italy.
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