Juventus vs Real Madrid: Ronaldo is ‘extraordinary’ – Allegri

Juventus are without Morocco defender Medhi Benatia and midfielder Miralem Pjanic.

A hamstring injury also kept him out for several matches but he is now back to his best and scored a stunning goal in the 3-1 win over AC Milan on Saturday. The endless run of injuries has started to ease as only a handful of players are absent and all of those are back in training, albeit at different periods in their recovery.

Ronaldo holds the rare distinction of scoring against Juve every time he has faced them, with seven goals in five matches against the perennial Serie A champions.

“Maybe Juventus haven’t had an emblematic player like Neymar, [Lionel] Messi or Cristiano in recent years, Zidane was the last player of that type that Juventus had”, he said.

“He is someone who can make a difference and we’ll look to contain him, even if we know that Real Madrid have many other unsafe players”. “We went to Cardiff with a lot of confidence – maybe too much – and that might be the first and most serious mistake we made in that final”, he said.

“We are aware of facing the strongest team in the UEFA Champions League”, the Italian told the assembled media.

“There’s respect and esteem, but that doesn’t mean we can’t beat them”. “We were able to score three but we have to kill it off”.

Zinedine Zidane described Cristiano Ronaldo as “one of the most lovely players in the history of football” after his stunning goal for Real Madrid against Juventus. I’m very focused on what I’m doing.

The Portuguese footballing icon produced a moment of impeccable perfection, which left the whole stadium absolutely stunned, with all corners of the Allianz Arena applauding the goal.

“They’re a fantastic side but we need to focus on our own game: we’ll play as if it were a final”, Cuadrado said ahead of the last-eight meeting.

“He’s managed to play good matches in succession, we know what we can expect from him in terms of performance”. “These two teams share the same DNA, two teams that fight hard and want to win everything”.

“At this level if you get distracted for even a second the opponents have such quality that they’ll seize on the opportunity immediately”. We have positive and negative memories of Cardiff, along with everyone else.

Zidane will be returning to Turin for the first time as a manager, his last outing as a player there coming in March 2005 when Real were beaten 2-0 by the Old Lady in the Champions League last 16.

“We had defended very well and allowed Real very little until their second goal”, he added.

“The important thing is always to be focused, concentrated and committed”. With one of the world’s best defenses and an attack featuring Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain, this club can compete with the best, which they’ll have to if they plan to get past Real.