Ronaldo can be difference in Juve’s Euro glory bid: Figo
LUIS Figo is unsurprised Cristiano Ronaldo continues to excel well into his 30s and believes his fellow Portuguese can be the catalyst for Juventus to win the Champions League.
Ronaldo has scored 19 times in 24 Serie A appearances since moving from Real Madrid last summer and, at 34, is still collecting individual accolades.
Former Madrid winger Figo believes players are better conditioned in the modern era and he expects Ronaldo to stay at the top level for some time to come.
Speaking in his role as a Laureus Ambassador, Figo said: “There are much more games now and, of course, you have to take care of yourself if you want to play until you’re 36 or 37.
“In these days people take care of themselves very well. My generation or before my generation you probably finished earlier, but now you can play until 36 easily.”
Juventus have not won the Champions League in 23 years although they have reached the final five times since then, including two of the last four.
On the last occasion in 2017, Ronaldo was on the opposite side, scoring twice in a 4-1 win as Madrid claimed the second of three successive crowns.
With Ronaldo in their ranks, Figo thinks Juventus have a better opportunity to go all the way this season — although he added that they face a tough tie in the last-16 against Atletico Madrid, the first leg coming tomorrow.
He said: “I’m sure he can because he’s one of the best and he’s showing that in the domestic league they don’t have an opponent in Italy.
“I think they are one of the favourites (to win the Champions League).
“They play against Atletico Madrid next, it’s always very tough because they are always very intensive and of course they have excellent motivation as they could play the final back home.
“It will be a nice two games to watch.” THE most impressive response possible from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United and Paul Pogba to a first setback last week, and a hugely ominous reaction from Stamford Bridge to yet another convincing Chelsea defeat.
The home crowd were in open and cutting dissent of Maurizio Sarri’s management, as yet another ponderous performance saw them lose 2-0 and crash out of the Emirates FA Cup at the fifth round.
That this is the first competition they have actually been eliminated from is irrelevant, such are the scale of the problems and the questions.
Chelsea fans so quickly went from wondering why Callum Hudson-Odoi wasn’t brought on to openly wondering what the manager was doing at all, before just singing “f *** Sarri-ball!”
Against that, United fans predictably sang of how he’d be getting sacked in the morning to something more inventive: “Bring back Mourinho!”
Whatever about their own problems under the Portuguese once upon a time, United instantly recovered from the problems of last week.
Pogba particularly did. This was exactly the right response to his petulant red card in the 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain: a commanding and creative leader’s performance that won the game, with a divine assist for Ander Herrera and then an authoritative header.
There was such assurance to it, and the United display as a whole, only sharpening the contrast with the confusion at the core of the Chelsea team and especially their defence.
This was the kind of decisiveness Stamford Bridge can only long for right now.
It again begs the question of whether the club hierarchy will show their old decisiveness in actually sacking Sarri, but that seems unlikely given he can still win a League Cup this weekend.
It’s just that the nature of this performance — not to mention the fact it’s against the Manchester City side that humiliated them 6-0 only last week — make that seem highly unlikely.
Chelsea ran into a familiar problem under Sarri, which pretty much comes down to how they CHELSEA: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta (Zappacosta, 82 mins), Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic (Barkley, 71 mins), Pedro (Willian, 58 mins), Higuain, Hazard. Subs not used: Caballero, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Christensen.
MAN UTD: Romero, Young, Smalling, Lin-
run compared to the opposition. Although they had again looked okay in passages of play when they had the ball, it was as if they just couldn’t match United’s delof, Shaw, Herrera, Matic, Mata (Pereira, 76 mins), Pogba, Rashford (McTominay, 90 mins), Lukaku (Sanchez, 73 mins).
Subs not used: De Gea, Bailly, Fred, Dalot. Man of the match: Paul Pogba (Man Utd) Match rating: 8/10
Referee: Kevin Friend
energy any time Solskjaer’s side decided to up it.
And up it they had, certainly from the second half of the defeat to PSG. This was not just the right kind of response, but also the right reactions, the right sharpness. They picked Chelsea off so ruthlessly.
It also allowed anyone watching to pick out another problem in what Sarri is trying to do with this team, and maybe any coaching education process. All the ideology and theory in the world won’t mean anything so long as you don’t really create chances, and concede them at will.
That was what it boiled down to.
While Chelsea were effectively waiting for Eden Hazard to do something, United just went and did enough, and then more. They looked so much more dangerous from midfield, and particularly through Pogba.
He ensured United so effectively exploited the expansive gaps left in the Chelsea side.
The first goal certainly showed the right kind of elaboration in his game, as he stepped over the ball to create space for himself, before putting it in precisely the space left free by Sarri’s backline.
Marcos Alonso was caught out, Kepa Arrizabalaga stuck to the ground, and Herrera ran into position to place the ball