Cristiano Ronaldo was nowhere near his best during Juventus' 3-3 draw with Sassuolo on Wednesday night.

The Old Lady looked to have regained their composure after losing to AC Milan and drawing against Atalanta by racing into a 2-0 lead after just 12 minutes.

However, Sassuolo had a trick up their sleeves, scoring three times unanswered to put the Italian champions on the verge of losing from a 2-0 lead for the second time in three games.

Sassuolo 3-3 Juventus

Thankfully for Maurizio Sarri's job security, though, Juventus did manage to rescue a draw courtesy of Alex Sandro, even if it means their league advantage has wilted to seven points.

The hectic match at Mapei Stadium also marked the first time that Ronaldo had failed to produce a goal or assist during a Serie A fixture since November. 

That, of course, is proof of Ronaldo's brilliance during his second season in Turin, but also underlines how much of an off day the trip to Sassuolo was by his dizzying standards.

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Bad day at the office

And while, yes, providing a goal contribution is not some sort of obligatory criteria for having a good game, there wasn't much for Ronaldo to shout about at any point during the draw.

A whole smorgasbord of websites gave him a match rating lower than 6/10 and his statistical score of 6.6 on WhoScored.com was one of his lowest marks of the entire campaign.

You only need to look at his individual highlights, compounded by a terrible botched skill on 66 minutes, to see why Ronaldo was being routinely mocked on social media all night.

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Should Ronaldo have been sent off?

However, things could have been even worse for CR7 if he had earned himself a red card and that was a very real possibility after a late challenge on Sassuolo skipper Francesco Magnanelli.

Ronaldo was flashed a yellow card after leaving his opponent squirming on the pitch for having landed his studs above the knee, albeit split-seconds after making contact with the ball.

The Sun branded it a 'horror tackle' and we can't deny that it looked a painful one for Magnanelli, but we'll let you be the judge by checking out the controversial incident down below:

GIVEMESPORT's Kobe Tong says

The referee was spot on, in my opinion, but bear with me a second.

This is a prime example where slow-motion footage can make a tackle look worse than it actually was and Ronaldo having landed his foot as high as Magnanelli's thigh certainly isn't great.

But for me, there's little in the way of an argument that Ronaldo was being deliberately malicious here and that's backed up by the fact he made contact with the ball just before the challenge. 

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However... does that mean I don't think a red card was a possibility? Absolutely not, because you do see these sort of moments produce dismissals from time to time.

I would like to say that VAR would ensure that isn't the case anymore, but the technology has proven to be just about as reliable as Ronaldo was in front of goal last night.

Thankfully for CR7, though, his red card tally remains at 11 for the time being. 

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