The whooshing rotor blades gave it away; the helicopter overhead could mean only one thing. Juventus fans have learned to associate Cristiano Ronaldo with them. A month ago, the Custom Basketball Jerseys club's president, Andrea Agnelli, boarded one for Greece to shake hands with the five-time Ballon d'Or winner on his move to Juventus. Now, one belonging to the local police hovered overhead as the Juventus bus, designed by Agnelli's playboy cousin Lapo Elkann, weaved its way into Verona. Arriving from Valpolicella, Italian football's finest had stayed the night in fine wine country, preparing for the first game of the season in a hotel that doubles as an art gallery. Who knows if Ronaldo was contemplating his next masterpiece. An Instagram story of the most expensive signing in Serie A history performing his initiation song on a chair -- Ronaldo Custom Soccer Jerseys chose "Minha Casinha" by Xutos & Pontapes -- soon went viral, another reminder of the Ronaldo effect on Juventus' booming social networks. The supporters rushing to climb the fence of the car park where the team bus pulled up hoped he'd be on song again when the game started. Alerted by the noise, those already inside the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi came out on the top tier, ringing the outside of the ground to catch a glimpse of the champions of Italy and their new No. 7. Crowds like this haven't descended on Verona since Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2006, leading to a security operation and the kind of anti-terrorism measures usually implemented when there is a G7 summit. Juventus' ultras stayed away in protest of the hike in ticket prices levied by the Bianconeri's opponents who want to cash in themselves on Ronaldo's presence, and a sector of the Curva Sud, where Hellas' hard-core stand, remained empty supposedly because of a pact with Chievo whereby no one can sit there when they are not playing. But other than that, the Bentegodi was a full house. The gate receipt, estimated to be worth €1 million to Chievo, broke the club record set here when the Inter of Javier Zanetti, Juan Sebastian Veron, Edgar Davids and Adriano drew 2-2 with them in 2004. The majority were not here for Chievo, though. The sheer number of black and white shirts in line at the turnstiles, many of which were Marchisio No. 8s after the news of his departure on Friday, made the Bentegodi feel like Juventus were the ones playing at home. The roar when they came out for the warm-up made the ears wince. Casual fans also showed up from all over Italy and beyond and the press box, filled with 135 journalists from all over the world, no longer spoke exclusively Italian. On the eve of the game, Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri said he was "curious" to see how Ronaldo and the team would do after playing so little together in a preseason shortened by the World Cup. Evidently he wasn't the only one. Diego Maradona made his Serie A debut at the Bentegodi in 1984 and the comparisons with Ronaldo reflected the gratification at no longer needing to be nostalgic about all-time greats playing in the league. No longer a thing of the past, it is the here and now. Chievo hoped to upset Ronaldo in Custom Football Jerseys the same way Hellas embarrassed Maradona when they beat Napoli 34 years ago. Lorenzo D'Anna, the Chievo coach, went into the game as the only Serie A manager with a better win ratio than Allegri after winning all the three games he took charge of at the end of last season to save the Flying Donkeys from freefall into Serie B. The Chievo winger Emanuele Giaccherini, who was part of the first two league titles Juventus won in this seven-year streak, took delight in recalling how his Cesena side upstaged Milan on the day of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Custom Baseball Jerseys debut in 2010. A repeat looked beyond him and his Chievo team as they fell behind just over two minutes in when Sami Khedira put his World Cup blues behind him and bundled in a knock-down from Giorgio Chiellini following a Miralem Pjanic free kick. Conversation in the stands turned to how many Juventus and Ronaldo might score. Allegri named a very attacking side with Douglas Costa, Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado playing off Ronaldo and his swashbuckling compatriot Joao Cancelo at right-back in an adventurous 4-2-3-1. Another debutant, just the second time around, Leonardo Bonucci was whistled initially by those Juventus fans who are yet to forgive him for walking out on them last season. As fate would have it, it was Bonucci who let Chievo back in. The Italy international was to have an eventful evening. Caught out by a Giaccherini cross, Mariusz Stepinski took advantage, beating fellow Pole Wojciech Szczesny with a fine header. "I prefer Messi," Stepinski told La Gazzetta dello Sport when asked whom he preferred in the Messi-Ronaldo debate.