Serie A

Cristiano Ronaldo is no stranger to the spotlight. In fact, he often seeks it out, what with his provocative underwear line, manicured appearance and supermodel girlfriends. 

But this past week the spotlight has been a bit brighter, a bit hotter, a bit more uncomfortable. 

We saw a Cristiano Ronaldo vs Napoli who looked like a younger version of himself on Saturday.

In a matchup of the top two teams in Serie A (both at the end of last season and early in the current campaign), Juventus edged Napoli 3-1 at Allianz Stadium in Turin. And much of what the Old Lady did well on Saturday came down to Ronaldo playing like a winger. 

Giuseppe Rossi has had a tumultuous career in and out of the spotlight since his days as a highly-touted youngster at Old Trafford back in 2004. Though he never really broke through for the Red Devils and went on loan a couple of times, we saw him at his best during a six year stint at Villarreal. The Italian enjoyed a handful of quality seasons for the Yellow Submarine and was widely regard as one of their most important players.

Cristiano Ronaldo recovered from the madness of his Champions League sending off to score the match-winner in Juventus’ 2-0 victory over Frosinone on Sunday in Serie A play, giving the Portuguese forward three goals in five appearances in Italy’s top division.

Ronaldo crushed his peers by attempting 10 shots on the day, putting five on target, two off and having three blocked. That’s a high number of shots, folks. (To go along with the fact that Juve outshot the home side 30-3.)

Fresh from his stint in the CSL with Hebei China Fortune, former Arsenal and Roma winger Gervinho appears to be loving life back in Italy with Serie A side Parma. After scoring against Juventus back on Sept. 1, the Ivory Coast flyer registered his second of the season Saturday in Parma’s 2-0 win over Cagliari. 

Maybe Douglas Costa doesn’t like sharing the spotlight with Cristiano Ronaldo? How else do you explain the shocking events that unfolded in the lead-up to the Douglas Costa red card on Sunday?

Ronaldo scored his first and second Juventus goals against Sassuolo on Sunday. The first was a simple tap-in but the second was pretty good. 

It took Cristiano 322 minutes, more than three full matches, for the first Ronaldo Juventus goal to finally arrive. It took 15 more minutes for the second. 

But that first one ... it was a bit of a dud, though that didn’t stop the Juventus fans (and Ronaldo himself) from celebrating like they had just clinched the league title.