Manchester United vs Juventus: The Return of Cristiano Ronaldo
Tuesday 23rd October 2018
Harry Cooper – UCFB Multimedia Sports Journalism Student 2018
The Champions League is back for its third match day of the 2018/19 campaign, and with some tasty fixtures on show too. Tomorrow sees fixtures such as Barcelona taking on an inform Inter Milan but without the magical Lionel Messi due to injury. As well as this, Atletico Madrid travel to Bundesliga league toppers Borussia Dortmund, and PSG welcome Italian dark horses Napoli to Parc des Princes. All of this however happens after the biggest tie of the group stages this season; Manchester United vs Juventus.
This game is not just any ordinary Champions League fixture. This set to be feisty affair sees Red Devil’s hero Cristiano Ronaldo return to his former club and his historic throne, Old Trafford. Having left Manchester for Madrid back in 2009 after six outstanding seasons in red, Ronaldo has set the world alight by winning league titles, domestic cups, and a couple of Champions Leagues along the way.
Scoring a bagful of goals season after season, CR7 has proven himself to be one of the very best. He captained his country to European success in 2016 when the Portuguese went all the way to defeat hosts and future World Cup winners France. With five Golden Ballon d’Or’s to his name, Ronaldo has become a fine goal scoring wine and arguably the best player ever to play in The Champions League. Ronaldo sits on 115 Champions League goals scored, the most by any player.
Paul Pogba will also be facing his former club and a handful of old team mates this evening. He will certainly be looking to impress after his defensive performance vs Chelsea at the weekend raised a few questions.
However, all eyes will be on the prolific Portuguese attacker as he is hungry to kick off his newly infamous Champions League career with Juventus. A one match suspension issued by UEFA was given to Ronaldo after he appeared to pull the hair of Valencia defender Jeison Murillo back in September, but a tearful Ronaldo had feared a longer ban that would have kept him out of his United return and denied the watching world a night to remember.