So all eyes are on the Portuguese great to ensure last season's heartbreak does not repeat itself.

Despite Juve winning a ninth-straight Serie A title last season, coach Maurizio Sarri was sacked due to another failure in Europe.

The Bianconeri are Italy's most decorated domestic team but they have underperformed on the continent.

AC Milan have seven European Cups, Inter three, while Juventus have won two - in 1985 and 1996.

The writing was on the wall for Sarri last season after Juventus were surprisingly knocked out by Lyon at the last-16 stage.

Andrea Pirlo is in a similar predicament this time around after they lost 2-1 away at Porto in their opening game of the knockout stage.

Pirlo knows exactly who to rely on to ensure that does not happen.

Despite his advancing years, 36-year-old Ronaldo is still Juve's talisman, as he leads the way in the Serie A goalscoring charts on 20.

He has also scored 10 goals in 10 home games for Juve in the Champions League.

His worth was clear as Pirlo gave Ronaldo a rest by keeping him on the bench for most of the league win over Lazio at the weekend, something the Portuguese does not normally welcome.

Ronaldo has dug his various teams out of holes on many occasions in the past and will look to do so again on Tuesday to aid his quest of winning the Champions League with a third club.

Meanwhile, Sevilla are still hopeful of pulling off a comeback of their own in their showdown with Borussia Dortmund.

Sevilla lost the first leg at home 3-2 last month and have struggled of late domestically.

But coach Julen Lopetegui said Sevilla still have the belief that they can turn things around.

"Every team goes through good and bad moments but the team is absolutely alive and excited about playing this game," Lopetegui said.

"We deserve to be here for what we did last season and this campaign and although we have a difficult result to overturn we're going to give it every last effort."

Sevilla's influential winger Lucas Ocampos is available after he missed the first leg and goalkeeper Bono could return from a finger injury that has kept him out of the past two games.

Australian Associated Press