Juventus were beaten 2-0 by Barcelona in the Champions League tonight, but the game was far from one-sided.
Andrea Pirlo named a positive-looking side, with an attacking 4-4-2 line-up named to take on Barcelona, and they started the game on top.
Neither side came out the gates at full-speed, but the Old Lady were building themselves into the game when they were rocked by an excruciating deflected goal.
Ousmane Dembele tried to launch a left-footed shot on goal from outside the box, only to fail to beat the defender, but the ball ricochet’s high and over Wojciech Szczesny and into the goal.
We looked like we had levelled the scoring almost straight from the kick-off, when Alvaro Morata ran through on goal to score, only to have it ruled out for offside.
We went into the break behind, but will have felt very-much still in the fixture, but remained unchanged after the break.
Barcelona put in a steady controlled second-half, giving away little in possession, and putting some neat passing drills into action, but Juve refused to lie down.
Alvaro Morata found himself making that run in behind once again, and actually scored again shortly into the second-half, but once again, his run proved to have been made too early, and was chalked off.
The visitors struck the post from Antoine Griezmann, and had wasted their own fair share of chances, before that man Morata found himself in on goal again… And you guessed it… He completes his hat-trick of disallowed goals on what will turn out to be one of the unluckiest performances in recent history.
We capped the game off with a second-yellow card to Merih Demiral, before giving away a penalty in injury time, which Lionel Messi made no mistake with, but I can’t help but feel hard done-by.
Did Juve deserve at least a point for their performance?
Patrick
You paint too beautiful a picture of Juve. They were absolute lacklustre tonight and it was surprising they managed to keep to only a goal up for most of the game. Our passing is a joke compared to Barce.
Of course not, we didn’t diserved any points. With such a weak Barca team we should have won by a lot. Barca leads and Pirlo puts McKenie in (basically a cheaper Matuidi). Last 20 minutes Juve players weren’t able to attack once in a coherent manner. Was Ramsey injured? And sell Berna already, we’re just waisting his/our time. #pirloout #allegriin
This is the worst I have seen Juve play in many years. Barca are a very mediocre team this year that is why this is such a disgrace. Juve today on the pitch had only 2 world class players Morata and Bonucci. Dybala horrible I am tired of wating for him to maximize his potential and he always disappears in big games . Chiesa despite all the noise he is good only for SerieA. kulusevski is too young and still quite raw… he also has no right foot.
Pirlo .. come on everyone can see that subs were needed from first half. Arthur should have been there from beginning. You needed a player that can hold ball and manage the game I don’t know why he waited til the game was practically over for first sub
It is quite clear that w/o Ronaldo in the lineup Juve cannot compete at all in UCL.
It pains me to say that Bayern right now can bet both these teams 8-0.
What was Dybala doing on the field? We had a natural for the position; Ramsey, but Pirlo sat him on the bench, I’m tired of watching him play, he’s lost form almost totally. But I guess these are the matches that he needs to play in to boost his confidence, but at what cost to the team?
I don’t know what Pirlo and the coaching stuff see in Rabiot. Absolutely useless. Arthur or Weston should’ve started. More defensive and ready for the crunch tackles. Danilo is utter defensive trash. Only good for backup. Frabotta would’ve done a far better job on the left. If Pirlo continues to put out lineups and formations that dont make sense, it’s time to give the more experience Pochettino a call.