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Football

27th Oct 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored the first banger of his Serie A career

Wayne Farry

Cristiano Ronaldo was a touch slow settling into life in Serie A

Not slow by regular players’ standards – he did provide a few assists early on – but slow by his own, ludicrously high scoring standards.

Nine games into the season however and he’s back to his old tricks, scoring five goals and laying on four assists so far, as Juventus have charged to the top of the table and dropped only two points out of a possible 27.

Despite his goals and nifty little assists, Ronaldo had as of yet failed to set Serie A alight with the sort of absolute scorcher that his time in LaLiga had become known for.

And in truth, so profoundly has the forward’s game changed in recent seasons that nowadays he’s better known for being in the right place at the right time than incredible strikes (bicycle kicks excluded, of course).

That all changed against Empoli on Saturday evening however, as the Portuguese forward rolled back the years with an absolute cracker.

Receiving the ball from French midfielder Blaise Matuidi, Ronaldo took a touch, looked up and launched a stunning shot over Empoli goalkeeper Ivan Provedel and into the top left corner.

The goal proved to be a vital one, and sealed a 2-1 victory over the home side which puts the Old Lady seven points ahead of second place Napoli.