Cristiano Ronaldo left the biggest fixture in the Italian calendar early on Sunday, provoking some raised eyebrows.
He was substituted less than a hour into Juventus’s 1-0 win over 8 Milan and did not wait to see if his club would hold on to the lead his replacement, Paulo Dybala, had given them.
Perhaps Ronaldo was simply in a hurry to head off for an important week in his other role, as captain of Portugal, the reigning European champions, who may yet need to win both their remaining Group B qualifiers to avoid the play-off route to the Euro 2020 finals, though they will be encouraged by the way the fixtures have fallen, one tonight at home to Lithuania and another on Sunday in Luxembourg.
Ronaldo has scored five times against that pair already this season, and if he can take the same lordly attitude to these next two Portuguese-versus-punchbag contests, he will reach a magical number: 100 goals for his country. He is on 95; he was on 85 a mere six of his 162 caps ago.