Pjanic reveals Juventus ‘tricked’ Cristiano Ronaldo into leaving crucial free kick

Miralem Pjanic revealed an extraordinary ‘trick’ Max Allegri played at Juventus to prevent Cristiano Ronaldo taking a decisive free kick. ‘It was the only way I could get the ball!’

The debate rages on in Portugal after Cristiano Ronaldo stormed out of their Nations League training camp in a row with coach Jorge Jesus, but keeping this ego in check has long been a problem for tacticians.

Some took slightly more subtle approaches to nudging him aside in order to make room for others, as revealed by former teammate Pjanic during the Festival dello Sport panel in Trento.

Pjanic and Allegri tricked Cristiano Ronaldo

“I do have an anecdote about this,” revealed Pjanic.

“We were playing at Napoli, I scored with a free kick, strangely with Cristiano Ronaldo in the team.”

When asked if CR7 was distracted and didn’t notice, the Bosnian confessed to some help from the touchline in the March 2019 match.

“Cristiano Ronaldo won the free kick, I think Meret got sent off for it. Max Allegri saw Cris on the ground touching his knee and immediately sent the physios on for treatment.

“This is because the free kick was so enticing, he got Cristiano off and let me take the free kick. And I scored from it! This was the only way I could get the ball, so thank you, Max!”

The statistics show this is no idle boast from Pjanic, who was along with another teammate Paulo Dybala one of the most consistent players in Serie A from set plays.

On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo took 98 Serie A free kicks in the Juventus jersey, and he scored from just one.