Man Utd Poised for Thrashing as Ronaldo to Face Former Club in Champions League

Jose Mourinho’s Man Utd have made a poor start to the 2018/2019 Premier League season, narrowly beating Leicester City in their opening fixture before suffering two defeats at the hands of Brighton and Tottenham, conceding seven goals in three games, highlighting the squad’s weakness in defense.

Thursday’s UEFA Champions League draw placed serial Serie A winners Juventus in the same group as Manchester United, meaning the two football titans will battle it out to progress to the next stage of the prestigious and lucrative tournament.  

They will first meet at Old Trafford on October 23, before clashing again in Turin on November 7.

READ MORE: Zidane Ready to Replace Mourinho as Man Utd Manager Amid Early Season Crisis

Although Ronaldo is yet to open his Serie A scoring account, football fanatics are expecting the Portuguese star to score in the tantalizing fixtures, especially given Man Utd’s defensive weakness, after they failed to sign any of their targeted defenders in the pre-season transfer window.

Furthermore, despite sending Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain on loan to AC Milan, Juventus has no shortage of other players capable of netting goals, including the likes of Paulo Dybala, Douglas Costa and Mario Mandzukic.

In any case, fans have taken to social media to mock Man Utd's early season performance, expecting them to be annihilated by Juventus.

United vs Juventus, our defenders have to face Ronaldo 😭😭😭😭

— Vinay (@SemperFiUtd) August 30, 2018

When Jones and Smalling realize it’s Ronaldo they are to mark #UCL pic.twitter.com/Gce4qcnXoU

— Alawi (@alawiabdul) August 31, 2018

— Simply Utd (@SimplyUtd) August 30, 2018

Ronaldo vs this Man Utd defence? Lmaooooo

— General Atopa (@wofa_slayzie) August 30, 2018

Earlier in his career, Ronaldo played for Man Utd, often being deployed as a winger, before he moved onto Real Madrid, enjoying unprecedented levels of success in European football, including three consecutive Champions League titles.

READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo Slammed as 'Nowhere Man' After Goalless Juventus Debut

Ronaldo has already scored against former team Man Utd in a previous Champions League game, back in 2013.  

In a shock move, he decided to transfer to Juventus shortly after the 2018 World Cup, for over $100 million.

Alongside Juventus and Man Utd, Valencia and Switzerland’s Young Boys round off Group H. Yesterday’s full UEFA Champions League group draw can be found below.

GROUP A:

Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Monaco FC, Club Brugge

GROUP B:

Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, PSV, Inter Milan

GROUP C:

Paris FC, Napoli, Liverpool, Crvena Zvezda

GROUP D:

Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto, Schalke, Galatasaray

GROUP E:

Bayern Munich, Benfica, Ajax, AEK Athens

GROUP F:

Manchester City, Lyon, Shakhtar Donetsk, Hoffenheim

GROUP G:

Real Madrid, Roma, CSKA Moscow, Plzen

GROUP H:

Manchester United, Juventus, Valencia, Young Boys