Cristiano Ronaldo is set for a rare start on the bench as Juventus host struggling Frosinone on Friday looking to pull 14 points clear in Serie A with an eye towards next week\u2019s Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Portuguese star Ronaldo brought his tally to 20 goals for Juventus in all competitions last weekend in a 3-0 win over Sassuolo. But the 34-year-old will start on the bench for just the second time this season before the former Real Madrid player returns to the Spanish capital next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri\u2019s defensive problems have been eased with trio Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini back training.Second-placed Napoli dropped points last weekend with a goalless draw against Fiorentina and face a potentially tricky test at home against Torino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Icardi\u2019s contractual situation, with his current deal expiring in 2021, has become an increasingly divisive issue between club bosses and the player\u2019s wife Wanda Nara, who is also his agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Napoli will be without midfielder Marek Hamsik for the first time since the former skipper having sealed his move to Chinese Super League club Dalian Yifang.Lorenzo Insigne takes on the captain\u2019s role and insisted motivation remained high despite Juventus\u2019 charge towards an eighth consecutive league title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJuventus haven\u2019t sapped our motivation, we knew it would be hard to keep up with them,\u201d said Insigne.\u201cThe championship is still long. We left some points on the road that we deserved, but we certainly do not give up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, third-placed Inter Milan, nine points behind Napoli, are in turmoil as they host Sampdoria days after stripping star forward Mauro Icardi of the captain\u2019s armband.\u201cIt was a difficult and painful decision because we know his worth,\u201d said Inter coach Luciano Spalletti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cristiano Ronaldo is set for a rare start on the bench as Juventus host struggling Frosinone on Friday looking to pull 14 points clear in Serie A with an eye towards next week\u2019s Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid. Portuguese star Ronaldo brought his tally to 20 goals for Juventus in all competitions last weekend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54931,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54929\/revisions\/54931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}