BARCELONA VS JUVENTUS: 0-3
Juventus secured a commanding 3-0 advantage over Barcelona in Champions League Quarterfinal. Paulo Dybala’s brilliant brace and Giorgio Chiellini’s header gave Juventus a stunning victory over Barcelona. Paulo Dybala scored two impressive goals in first half of the match to put pressure over his counter- part Lionel Messi. Dybala has been very keen to play down talk of him being Messi’s heir apparent for Argentina. Although Luis Enrique’s side defeated PSG with an impossible comeback of 0-4 in the first leg to secure a place in Quarterfinals but this time it would be much difficult.
The defeat against Malaga last Sunday was unexpected for Barcelona fans hence it was tough for Coach Luis Enrique to put forward a confident team with attacking line-up. Once again Enrique deployed the hybrid 3-4-3 line-up whereas Juventus followed an attacking field set of 4-2-3-1 to see Barca off the first leg match Juventus Stadium. From the start of the match, Juventus were very aggressive on the field as Gonzalo Higuain strike his header in 2’ from Pjanic’s free kick but a brilliant save from goalkeeper deprived them of a goal. Just then in 7’ Juan Cuadrado’s pass into the box where Paulo Dybala collected the pass to turn and finish on the angle with almost nonchalant cool. Barcelona was struggling to gain momentum in the match as Messi’s magic almost earned them a goal but Juventus defence was high spirited to see it through. Barca granted Dybala way too much room to play his game and Mario Mandzukic’s cut in 22’ saw Dybala perfect kick at bottom left corner as Pique partially blocked the Goalkeeper’s view to save the goal. Barcelona’s woes were compounded when Messi thought he had reduced the lead but then he was denied by an offside. Luis Suarez was off target with a couple of headers but Juventus were on song as they almost scored another just before half time. At the end of Half-time Juventus had a strong lead over Barcelona with 2-0.
HOFFENHEIM GAVE BAYERN MUNICH A SHOCKING DEFEAT IN BUNDESLIGA
From the start of second half Barcelona wanted to reduce to lead but on each occasion, they ran out of their luck. Juventus centre-back Bonucci halted Neymar earlier with the three-game domestic ban. Barcelona forward kept on taking their shots as Messi left footed the loose ball wide from the edge of the goal post. On the other hand, Dybala was screaming for a pass as he wanted to complete his hat-trick of the match. Higuain sprung the offside trap to blast at the Barcelona’s defence but a nice save from goalkeeper but in the very next 55’ Chiellini obliged with a magnificent assist from Javier to complete the third goal for Juventus. Barcelona had ball possession of 65% percent in entire match but still, they ran out of luck to score their first of the match. At the end of full-time, Juventus defeated Barcelona by 3-0 at their home.
MATCH STATS:
- Paulo Dybala has now scored 7 goals in his last 7 home matches. Every time when Dybala had scored this season Juventus has won the match.
- Juventus now have a commanding 3-0 advantage over Barcelona in their Champions League quarter finals.
