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Football

25th Aug 2018

WATCH: Miralem Pjanic’s half-volley gives Juventus the lead on Cristiano Ronaldo’s home debut

Simon Lloyd

Understandably, much of the talk prior to Juventus’ first home game of the season was about Cristiano Ronaldo

The Portugal captain, responsible for dumping Juve out of the Champions League last season, completed his switch to Turin from Real Madrid over the summer.

Having failed to open his account for the Bianconeri on his first competitive appearance for them at Cheivo last week, all eyes were on the Allianz Stadium for the visit of Lazio on Saturday afternoon, to see if Ronaldo could mark his home bow with a goal.

The opening goal of the game came courtesy of Miralem Pjanic, one of the men linked with a move away from Turin in the days which followed Ronaldo’s arrival.

With a Mario Mandzukic header nodded to the edge of the area by a Lazio defender, the Bosnian international opened the scoring with a sweetly struck half volley, just before the half hour mark.

The goal was enough to give the Serie A champions a half-time lead. The wait for Ronaldo’s first Juve goal goes on.