Maurizio Sarri opens up on Ronaldo's absence from Udinese clash

After a win over Udinese, Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri opened up on the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo from the match saying that he had 'sinusitis' and felt some shivers.

"Ronaldo was not present because for a couple of days he had a bit of sinusitis and today he felt some shivers, so we prefer to keep him rested given the cold evening," the club's official website quoted Sarri as saying.

Despite Ronaldo's absence, Juventus thrashed Udinese by 4-0 during their Coppa Italia match on Thursday. With this victory, Juventus have reached in the quarter-finals.

Gonzalo Higuain scored the opening goal of the match followed by Paulo Dybala, who scored two times, and Douglas Costa' strikes.

The manager said they had a good match and termed the first goal as 'rare beauty'.

"The knockout fixtures are always an unknown factor, but the feeling in training was that the team was brilliant, so I expected a great performance, and, in fact, we had a good match. The first goal is of rare beauty, with trade at full speed," Sarri said.