MILAN: Cristiano Ronaldo started on the bench as Massimiliano Allegri’s return to Juventus got off to a disappointing start on Sunday. Two mistakes from goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny saw his side relinquish an early two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Udinese in Serie A.

Ronaldo didn’t start amid reports he had asked to be on the bench and that he could still leave Juve with a year remaining on his contract. When he did come on in the second half, Ronaldo thought he had scored a stoppage-time winner but it was ruled out for offside after he had ripped off his shirt in celebration and been embraced by team-mates.

Paulo Dybala scored and set up another goal to give Juve what looked like a comfortable advantage a quarter of the way through the match. But Szczsny conceded a penalty and another mistake from him allowed Gerard Deulofeu to score the equaliser with seven minutes remaining.

Allegri was rehired by Juve in the offseason just two years after he was fired by the club after the Bianconeris worst season in 10 years ended their nine-year grip on the league title and saw the end of Andrea Pirlos brief tenure.

Jose Mourinho has also returned to Serie A and got off to a winning start at AS Roma with a 3-1 victory over Fiorentina.

Allegri’s return got off to the best possible start. Juan Cuadrado and Rodrigo Bentancur combined before the latter pulled the ball back for Dybala, wearing the captain’s armband, to drill across into the bottom left corner and give Juve a third-minute lead.

Dybala turned provider 20 minutes later with a brilliant cross-field pass to Cuadrado, who skipped past a couple of defenders before shooting into the far bottom corner.

Udinese got back into the match six minutes into the second half. Szczesny could only parry Tolgay Arslan’s effort and then brought down the Udinese midfielder as they both went for the rebound. Roberto Pereyra struck the penalty into the bottom right corner.

Juve almost restored their two-goal lead immediately but Alvaro Morata’s header came off the left post.

Ronaldo was brought on at the hour mark and went close to having an immediate impact as first he headed a free kick inches wide and then he set up Bentancur, whose effort smacked off the right post.

Instead it was Udinese who scored as Szczesny failed to deal with a simple-looking back pass from Leonardo Bonucci and Stefano Okaka stole the ball off him and set up Deulofeu.

The goal was initially ruled out but was given on video review. VAR was again to hurt Juve deep into stoppage time as Ronaldo was seen to be offside when he headed in Federico Chiesa’s cross.

It was the most dramatic moment in an eventful night in the Italian top flight, with six red cards in four matches and three big-name managers returning to the touchline.

The one with the biggest reputation — Mourinho — was made happy by two assists from new signing Tammy Abraham who shone on his Roma debut at the Stadio Olimpico.

With Fiorentina already down to 10 men, in the 26th minute Abraham slipped through Henrikh Mkhitaryan whose neat finish was given as a goal after a long VAR check.

Nicolo Zaniolo’s second yellow card gave a brave Fiorentina side hope and Nikola Milenkovic levelled the scores on the hour mark.

However great work again from Abraham — who also hit the bar — led to Roma retaking the lead through Jordan Veretout four minutes later, the 23-year-old just about staying onside before rolling a perfect low cross which allowed the French midfielder to slot home.

Veretout made sure Mourinho got three points from his first match in Serie A since winning the league with Inter Milan in 2010 when he rolled home the third in the 79th minute after collecting a brilliant Eldor Shomurodov pass.

Luciano Spalletti also triumphed on his return to football with Napoli, his team running out 2-0 winners over promoted Venezia despite playing three-quarters of the match a man down after striker Victor Osimhen was sent off for punching Daan Heymans.

Lorenzo Insigne opened the scoring with a 62nd-minute penalty after having blazed over a spot-kick just minutes before, and Eljif Elmas drilled home the second 11 minutes later to secure the win.

There was no lack of drama in Sunday’s other match, with Bologna beating new boys Salernitana 3-2 in a match in which three players were sent off.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2021