Cagliari forward Joao Pedro has admitted "it gives you confidence” to have scored one goal more than Juventus talisman Cristiano Ronaldo. "The Italian league is very difficult".
The Brazilian is on 11 goals after 17 games in Serie A this term. Ronaldo is on 10 goals in 14 games for the league leaders (on par with Inter), as Cagliari ended the year sixth in the League.
He admitted that it’s very difficult to score in the Italian championship and pointed towards Ronaldo’s record from Spain before arriving in Turin.
Cagliari forward Joao Pedro has admitted "it gives you confidence” to have scored one goal more than Juventus talisman Cristiano Ronaldo. "The Italian league is very difficult".
The Brazilian is on 11 goals after 17 games in Serie A this term. Ronaldo is on 10 goals in 14 games for the league leaders (on par with Inter), as Cagliari ended the year sixth in the League.
He admitted that it’s very difficult to score in the Italian championship and pointed towards Ronaldo’s record from Spain before arriving in Turin.
“It gives you confidence [having scored one more than Ronaldo],” he told Globoesporte. “The Italian league is very difficult. It’s a very tactical championship.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest in history. I Spain he always scored 40 goals, whilst in Italy he got 25,” he added. “This is because it’s very difficult to play against the Italian defenders.”
Pedro went through a difficult 2018, when he became the protagonist through a doping story. He tested positive for a diuretic after a 0-0 draw with Sassuolo and further tests led to a six-month ban from football.
The 27-year-old claimed he had never done anything wrong and Cagliari stood by the player.
“I was surprised by what happened,” he said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I was lucky that I could prove everything.
“But when your name is brought up like that, the word doping is strongly attached to you. I started looking at a lot of cases related to doping and, in most of them, there was a medical or third-party error involved. It’s still very difficult for me to digest.”