Ronaldo starts on the bench as Juventus wastes 2-goal lead

Massimiliano Allegri’s return to Juventus got off to a disappointing start as two mistakes from goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny saw his side relinquish an early two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at Udinese in the Italian league on Sunday.

Cristiano Ronaldo started from the bench amid reports he could still leave Juventus with a year remaining on his contract. He thought he had scored a stoppage-time winner but it was ruled out for offside after Ronaldo had ripped off his shirt in celebration and been embraced by teammates.

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

Allegri was rehired by Juventus in the offseason — just two years after he was fired by the club — after the Bianconeri’s worst season in 10 years ended their nine-year grip on the league title and saw the end of Andrea Pirlo’s brief tenure.

José Mourinho has also returned to Serie A and his Roma side entertains Fiorentina later Sunday.

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 to drill across into the bottom left corner and give Juventus 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. Szczęsny 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.

Juventus almost restored its two-goal lead immediately but Álvaro 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 which scored as Szczęsny 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 Juventus deep into stoppage time as Ronaldo was seen to be offside when he headed in Federico Chiesa’s cross.

NEW BOYS

Lorenzo De Silvestri scored twice as Bologna fought back to beat newly promoted Salernitana 3-2 in a match which saw both teams have players sent off.

It was Salernitana’s first match back in the top flight for more than 20 years and it got off to a poor start as Stefan Strandberg was sent off in the 34th following two yellow cards in the space of a minute.

But Bologna defender Roberto Soriano was shown a straight red card five minutes into the second half and Federico Bonazzoli converted the penalty to give Salernitana the lead.

Mamadou Coulibaly also scored for Salernitana after De Silvestri’s equalizer. But Marko Arnautović pulled the home side level again at 2-2 before De Silvestri netted the winner in the 77th.

Bologna was reduced to nine men in the final minute as midfielder Jerdy Schouten was given a second booking.