Juventus manager Andrea Pirlo revealed his reasons to not start Cristiano Ronaldo against Lazio

Juventus recently ran riot against Lazio as they defeated them 3-0 with Alvaro Morata scoring a brace while Adrien Rabiot getting the other goal for the Bianconeri.

However, despite the win, Juventus manager Andrea Pirolo was subject to questions over Cristiano Ronaldo not starting such an important game.

The win takes the Old Lady within seven points of the table topper Inter Milan. This was a morale-boosting win for Juventus as they did it without their Portuguese talisman who just made a cameo of twenty-odd minutes. Pirlo revealed that the Serie A top scorer agreed to take a rest with a lot of important matches being lined up.

“It came from eight or nine consecutive games, we reached an agreement during the week. It was already scheduled,” Pirlo said at the post-match press conference.

“Cristiano is an added value, the boys have done what they had to do. Cristiano has already scored 20 goals, it was normal that they also scored the others.

“When you give the ball to him something can always happen and often you start 1-0 up. He is fine.

“This rest was agreed during the week because he had played so many consecutive games and needed to rest.”
Despite turning 36 last month, Ronaldo has been scoring goals for fun and has been a very vital cog in Pirlo’s system at Turin. He has scored 27 goals in 31 matches in all competitions. He is the highest goalscorer in Serie A with 20 goals and there is no sign that indicates that his age is catching up.

It is just that Pirlo wanted Ronaldo to be fully fit ahead of their Champions League round of 16-second leg clash against FC Porto where the Old Lady are 1-2 down in aggregate though they have an away goal advantage from the first leg. It was a great performance from the Portuguese outfit as they managed to defeat the Italian giants and they will be looking to replicate that performance again but with Ronaldo raring to go things won’t be easy for SérgioConceição and his men.

“Will Porto come here to park the bus? I don’t know,” he added. “Whether you park it or not, we will have to move it to them because we have to win this match. We can’t go wrong on Tuesday,” Pirlo concluded highlighting the importance of his Portuguese talisman in the Champions League.