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Cristiano Ronaldo proves costly AGAIN for Juventus in a free-kick wall

  /  autty

Cristiano Ronaldo may have lined up in his last free-kick wall for Juventus after he again proved the weak link in a key moment.

Ronaldo was accused of 'betrayal' last month when he was criticised for turning his back on a free-kick against Porto, which caused their elimination from the Champions League.

On Wednesday night it was back in Serie A and while Juventus came from behind to win 3-1, Parma took the lead thanks in part to Ronaldo ducking the set-piece.

In a wall alongside Arthur Melo, Rodrigo Bentancur and Weston McKennie, Ronaldo is the only player of the four not to front up to Gaston Brugman's 25th-minute strike.

The ball flies between Ronaldo and Bentancur and veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has no chance to get across and save it.

As Brugman goes to strike the ball, Ronaldo buries his head into his forearm and also opts against jumping off the ground.

Juventus boss Andrea Pirlo was left to concede afterwards that Ronaldo may no longer be part of future defensive free-kick walls.

'Unfortunately, these things happen,' Pirlo said when asked if Ronaldo was to blame. 'But we'll evaluate (his role at free-kicks) over the next few days.'

Ronaldo's faux-pas against Parma saw many look back to the Champions League exit to Porto.

The Portuguese side were awarded a free-kick from 35 yards out in the 115th minute of extra time, which saw Sergio Oliveira line up a hit-and-hope shot towards Juventus' goal.

With the scores level on aggregate at 3-3 and the game heading to penalties, Juventus, with a man advantage, were on the front foot and set up a three-man wall to stop the hopeful set-piece from reaching their goal.

With a long run up, Oliveira struck the ball low and hard towards the bottom left corner of Wojciech Szczesny's goal, which saw Ronaldo turn away from the strike while parting his legs in a lazy attempt to block the ball.

'That was an unforgivable error,' former England boss Fabio Capello told Sky Sport Italia that night.

'In my day, you chose the players who went into the wall and they couldn't be someone afraid of the ball. They were scared of the ball and jumped away from it, turning their backs. That's unforgivable.'

Juventus did manage to get the victory on this occasion and with AC Milan losing it proved key in the race for the top four for Pirlo's side.

The ex-Juventus midfielder was also quizzed afterwards on Ronaldo's future, given his contract expires in Turin in 2022.

'We aren't thinking about it, he has one year left on his contract and we are happy he can continue playing for us,' Pirlo said.

'We are focused on this season and we want to conclude it best way possible.

'He's having a great season and last year he had a truly great campaign.'

Juventus now face back-to-back away games against Fiorentina and Udinese as they look to keep their top four bid on track