Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo sought to ease concerns for Cristiano Ronaldo after he was forced off during their 1-1 draw with Lazio.

Ronaldo picked up an ankle and was forced to leave the pitch on 71 minutes.

Pirlo said, “Ronaldo is a key player not only for us but for all the teams where he played, he had an ankle problem and he was forced to leave.

“Who entered the pitch did well, we had problems to hold the ball and manage certain types of plays.

“We are always working to improve, we put new ideas into every game . Today [Federico] Chiesa was unable to play in the last second, [Giorgio] Chiellini is injured and both Alex Sandro and [Matthijs] de Ligt are out but these can't be excuses."

On the game, Pirlo remarked: "We played a great game, they never had a shot on target.

“Championships are won if we take care of every detail, we mismanaged the ball in the final ten seconds and they scored the equalizer.

“The head is the most important thing, if you go on the pitch with a not positive attitude you do bad performances. Too bad for the result we deserved more," he added.

“We lack malice and desire to achieve these results, there were no signs we would allow a goal, we have to give something more."