The Portuguese ace stole the show on Saturday to lead Juventus to victory, earning his manager’s respect and praise.
Andrea Pirlo revealed Cristiano Ronaldo’s anger at his costly penalty miss against Atalanta last week and how the star’s response proved ‘how much he cares about scoring goals’ – especially from open play.
Ronaldo put Parma to the sword on Saturday by scoring a brace to help Juventus bag an impressive 4-0 win.
The Real Madrid legend’s goals made him the first Serie A player since 1961 to score 33 goals in a calendar year and only the fourth overall.
His impressive performance was the perfect response to that missed penalty opportunity in last week’s 1-1 home draw with Atalanta.
“Ronaldo was angry with himself for having missed the penalty,” said Pirlo as quoted on the club’s website.
“But we [only] had a few days to think about it and he [quickly] showed how much he cares about scoring goals, even better when [they come] during open play.
“We were not happy with Wednesday’s result, but the performance was good.
“[Against Parma] we had to get back the points we lost against Atalanta and we did it in the best way.
“We needed to score and have a team win – we did it while playing good football.”
Ronaldo has now moved clear of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku on top of the Serie A scoring charts on 12 goals in only nine games.
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