The Brazilian centre-back remembers the duel with Ronaldo: “I started grabbing him to make him angry…” – Internacional

Brazilian central defender Murillo, in an interview with “ESPN Brasil”, recalled the day he had to mark Cristiano Ronaldo in a match between Juventus and Lokomotiv Moscow in 2019/20 which to this day remains in the defender's memory. “I had to tag them individually in [grande] region. “The moment he dribbled face-to-face was complicated, given his quality and the responsibility I had in marking him,” Murillo, 26, began to explain. “He played more inside the box and didn't do that,” he continued. “You don't touch the ball as much. When The ball went into the penalty area and you had to try to clear it, otherwise he would do it. [golo]… (Laughs) Since I'm a big fan of his, I knew he jumped a lot. I just thought 'I can't let him jump'. Then I started grabbing him to make him angry. It was a good and memorable match for me,” said the centre-back, who considered CR7 the hardest player to ever score in Europe.

“That's what made me more nervous. Not nervous on the pitch, but nervous being there thinking I had to mark him. But he was very 'nervous'. We speak the same language, [percebi que] He spoke to Eder, who was from our team and the Portuguese national team. “I was very upset because we were so far behind.”

It should be noted that in the match in question, Juventus ended up beating Lokomotiv (2-1) thanks to Paulo Dybala's brace.