"Of course we miss Cristiano Ronaldo"

Juan Cuadrado, the Juventus winger, admitted this Monday that his team are missing Cristiano Ronaldo. He has missed the last three games after testing positive for coronavirus and he is a doubt for Wednesday's Champions League game with Barcelona. 

"Cristiano is a champion. We know that in these such difficult games, against opponents who shut up shop at the back like versus Verona on Sunday, his strength, his mentality and his motivation ends up prevailing. In this moment of course we miss him," Cuadrado told 'Sky Sport'. 

Juventus have drawn the two league games without Cristiano Ronaldo, 1-1 at Crotone and 1-1 at home to Verona and they won at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League last Wednesday thanks to Alvaro Morata's double. 

Andrea Pirlo's team face Barcelona on Wednesday on matchday two of the Champions League in a game which Cuadrado thinks Juventus need to show their ability. 

"It's a difficult game to play, against a very strong opponent. We must go out onto the pitch and show the strength of Juventus. Against big club, we always give something more. We must not make mistakes at the beginning, we must try and get a good result," he said. 

"We are going to prepare the match to win even though we know that we are playing against a very strong opponent. Whatever happens, we must know that we are professional, we must fight and not lose the habit we have at Juventus of giving it our all until the end," he added. 

On a personal level, Cuadrado explained that last season, under Maurizio Sarri, he played at right back and that has helped him to improve a lot in defensive roles. 

"I've been more used to defending since last year, I worked a lot on that with Sarri last year. Now Pirlo is asking me to always contribute going forward. We are gradually finding the way to become dangerous," he said.