Juventus came from behind to snatch a dramatic 3-2 win at Chievo as Cristiano Ronaldo made his debut for the Turin side on Saturday, although the Portugal captain was not among the scorers in his first Serie A match.

Ronaldo was thwarted several times the by the veteran Chievo goalkeeper, Stefano Sorrentino, and his handball in the buildup led to a late Juventus goal being disallowed.

Sami Khedira put Juventus ahead after three minutes but the visitors were stunned when Mariusz Stepinski levelled seven minutes before the break.

Emanuele Giaccherini then scored a penalty against his former club to give Chievo a shock lead in the 56th minute – only for Mattia Bani, under pressure from the returning Leonardo Bonucci, to deflect a corner into his own net in the 75th minute.

Juventus had a goal disallowed for handball by Ronaldo but, in the next attack, Federico Bernardeschi turned the ball in to give the reigning champions a winning start.

Massimiliano Allegri said he was impressed with Ronaldo’s debut and that the only thing missing was a goal. The Juventus coach also suggested that Ronaldo’s teammates could have been more generous in supplying the Portuguese forward with the ball.

“Physically, Ronaldo held out well on his debut considering he has only been training with us for seven days and he did really well,” Allegri said. “He pulled their defence around, he moved between the lines and, on several occasions, he wasn’t served with the ball. You can already see that he is a different player. I was struck by how easily he has blended into the team and he was very happy with the win at the end.”

The five-times world player of the year, signed from Real Madrid in July, spent most of the match on the left side of the attack. Ronaldo, 33, nearly grabbed an early Serie A goal when he shot narrowly wide from the edge of the area shortly after Juve’s opener. In the second half, he was foiled when Sorrentino made a brilliant one-handed save from his dipping shot and again when the Chievo goalkeeper blocked his free-kick.

“He played a good match but Sorrentino got in the way,” Allegri said.