Champions League: Ronaldo sent off in Juventus’ 2-0 win over Valencia

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League debut for Juventus didn’t turn out to be one which he would want to remember as the Portuguese star was sent off against their clash with Valencia on Wednesday.

Two penalties from midfielder Miralem Pjanic in both the halves helped the Italian giants walk away with the win.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner was involved in a clash in the 29th minute with Valencia’s Jelson Murillo after which he was shown a red card by German referee Felix Brych. This was the first time Ronaldo saw a red card in the competition.

As of now, the star forward is expected to face a two-match ban, which thus would automatically rule him out of Juventus’ match against Manchester United at the Old Trafford. If his ban is extended to three matches, he might as well miss the reverse fixture.

The Juventus defence was absolutely rocking solid and even as the ball possession was dominated by Valencia towards the latter stages, they failed to score even a single goal in the Group H match.

After Juventus’ scored through two penalties, a third one was awarded and it was now in favour of the Spanish club but they failed to capitalise on it with Daniel Parejo’s spot-kick saved by Wojciech Szczesny.

At the Santiago Bernabeu, defending champions Real Madrid calmy brushed aside AS Roma 3-0 to get their title defence up and running in style.

Spanish midfielder Isco’s free-kick opened the scoring for the hosts before Welsh winger Gareth Bale doubled the lead through a wonderfully built counter-attack.

The third one was pumped into the net by Real Madrid’s new number 7- Mariano whose spectacular effort in the stoppage time was reminiscent of his stalwart successor.

In Bern, it was Manchester United who cruised to a 3-0 win over Young Boys.

Frenchman Paul Pogba found the back of the net twice before countryman Anthony Martial’s 66th-minute strike sealed a stylish win for them.

At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City was left stunned by Lyon who handed the English club a 2-1 loss on Wednesday.

Maxwell Cornet fired the visitors to a 1-0 lead before Nabil Fekir doubled the lead in the 43rd minute to hand his team a position of dominance. Although City pulled one back through Bernado Silva in the 68th minute, the outcome was always in favour of the French club.

Other results:
Benfica 0-2 Bayern Munich
Plzen 2-2 CSKA Moscow
Shaktar Donetsk 2-2 Hoffenheim
Ajax 3-0 AEK

ALSO READ: UEFA Champions League 2018: Messi’s hat-trick helps Barcelona trounce PSV Eidhoven