Juventus have officially reached the Europa League semi-finals and are one step away from having the once in a lifetime opportunity to play a final on their own stadium.

A match different from the recent ones. Juventus started firing at all cylinders and got the lead early with another beautiful Pirlo’s free kick. Then they went on cruise control, lowering the level of intensity and this inevitably led to some sloppy plays and the Olympique Lyonnais’ goal with Jimmy Briand.

After that, Juventus managed the game and conceded only a real chance to the opponents (the Mvuemba free kick) before finishing off the job thanks to a Marchisio deflected shot from long range.

Lately, Juventus game are so hard to interpret. It feels like they have a “on/off button”, but decide to switch it on only for limited timespans, just enough to accomplish their goals. Probably it’s just management of the energies, considering that Juve played so many games in the last two games. Now some time to rest will arrive soon.

Buffon: 7. He makes everything looks so simple. Gonalons’ shot was powerful, Mvuemba’s free kick was dangerous, but they were a walk in the park for him. On the goal, maybe he could have done better, maybe not but it looked like the whole team froze.

Caceres: 7.5. Amazing game by El Pelado. Always precise on coverages and man marking. Extremely energetic, electrifying, he was everywhere.

Bonucci: 5.5. Decent defending, but so many misplaced long balls. It looked like he misplaced all of them. When Pirlo is taken out of the game, he has to step up in the build-up of the action. Today, he hasn’t. We want Bonuccenbauer.

Chiellini: 6.5. Classic gorilla performance by Chiellini. He easily controlled the Lyon’s forwards who were gravitating in his area.

Isla: 5. Such a frustrating player. He lacks personality, in my opinion. He has so many chances he can take advantage of, but he never does. After two years, we still haven’t figured out if he’s good enough for Juventus. Or maybe that is the answer…

Marchisio: 6. Definitely at fault on the Briand goal, but he made up for that scoring the lucky goal that sealed the deal.

Pirlo: 6.5. The free kick was gorgeous and immensely helped Juventus. He also did a good in the defensive phase. But the Malbranque man marking limited a bit too much.

Vidal: 6. An OK performance by Arturo after missing the last two games due to disqualification. Solid in the midfield, sometimes (not many times) he showed he could be dangerous going forward.

Asamoah: 7. Brilliant performance. He peaked in the second half when it was most needed, he created a super dangerous chance and was a constant presence on that flank in both phases.

Vucinic: 5. Unfortunately, he played with his slippers on today. Vintage Mirko. He is very creative, he has many touches but wasted most of all despite being often in good position.

Tevez: 6.5. He will score in the final, if we get there. I’m convinced of that. He almost started the dances with a sick shot and then was denied of a brilliant goal because of an offside. For the rest, the usual threat.

Llorente: 6.5 A couple of good headers to set up his teammates, he helped the team staying high.

Giovinco: 6.5. He’s starting to be show confidence when used as a super sub. Full of grinta.

Pogba: no rating.