Juventus 0-2 Barcelona
Barcelona took control of Champions League Group G tonight with a 0-2 win over Juventus in Turin, thanks to a first-half strike by Ousmane Dembele and a late penalty from Leo Messi.
The resignation of Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu on Tuesday was an interesting back story to this match as the Catalan club continues its dramas off the pitch, but on it, Messi pulled the strings to lead his side to a confident victory over the Serie A champions.
Juve head coach Andrea Pirlo was without Cristiano Ronaldo as his talisman had tested positive for coronavirus again, and striker Alvaro Morata had three goals ruled out for offside on a night to forget for I Bianconeri.
Highlights of the game
Barca opened up at a furious pace, and Lionel Messi had a sight of goal in just the second minute when Merih Demiral hit a shocking pass into his path, but the Argentine shot too close to Wojciech Szczesny and the keeper palmed the ball away for a corner, much to the relief of the Turkish defender.
From the resulting cross, Antoine Griezmann took a swing from 12 yards out and his effort crashed against the post and away to safety. But the Blaugrana’s early pressure came to fruition on 14 minutes when Messi found Ousmane Dembele with a beautiful cross-field pass, and the France striker fired a shot which hit Federico Chiesa and looped over Szczesny and into the net.
Ousmane Dembele celebrates after scoring Barcelona’s first goal of the match
I Bianconeri have been struggling for goals in the absence of Ronaldo, but they thought they’d grabbed an equaliser a minute later when Alvaro Morata broke into the Barca penalty area. After Neto had made a superb save from the Spaniard he fired the rebound into the net. But his celebration was cut short when VAR adjudged Morata to be marginally offside.
Messi pulled a shot narrowly wide after a smart interchange with Griezmann and then Morata had another goal ruled out for offside. But just before the break, Barca should have extended their lead but were thwarted by Szczesny who made a double save from Dembele and then Griezmann.
Morata must have wondered what he had done to deserve his luck when he had a third goal disallowed for offside. This time he converted when Juan Cuadrado volleyed a ball back across the box and, after an agonizingly long VAR check, Morata may have thought this was his time but no; he was inches offside!
Juve began to push harder and both Adrien Rabiot and Dejan Kulusevski fired off target when cooler heads might have made more of their chances and, as the game opened up, Messi put Griezmann through on goal but the Frenchman fired just past the far post.
It was a frustrating night for Juve, rounded off when they went down to ten men with the minutes ticking away. Demiral picked up a second yellow card for an ugly challenge on Sergio Busquets and effectively ended his team’s hopes.
And when Federico Bernardeschi clattered into Ansu Fati in the box and Messi stroked home the injury-time penalty that put the icing on the Catalan’s cake.
Key statistics
With last night’s Champions League 2020 results throwing up victories for Manchester City, Liverpool and FC Bayern it fell to two more of the big guns to scrap it out tonight at the Juventus Stadium.
At pre-match odds of 2.49 Barca deserved their win. They had by far the better of the first half with seven shots to two and three to nil on target. Other than Morata’s offside attempts Juve failed to register a shot on target as Barca ended with four.
The Blaugrana are now unbeaten in 11 away Champions League group games and have beaten Juve in Turin for the first time in seven attempts.
What’s next?
Before a ball was kicked tonight the Champions League 2020 betting odds had Barca as marginal favourites to win Group G at odds of 1.80, and this result has put the Blaugrana well in charge.
Next week Juventus face Ferencvaros while Barcelona host Dynamo Kiev where both will expect to pick up three points.
In the meantime, the next round of Serie A action takes the Old Lady to visit new boys Spezia who have made a decent start to their top-flight campaign and seven points from five games leaves them in a respectable 14th place. Take a look at the latest SBOTOP odds for that one. Asian handicap betting is the way to play it with Juventus currently at 2.09 with a -1.50 handicap, and Spezia at 1.80 with that 1.50 goal advantage.
Defeat in El Clasico last weekend has left Barca down in 12th place in La Liga and that is a start which has put Ronald Koeman under some early pressure. Whether the departure of Bartomeu puts him in a more difficult position only time will tell, but tonight’s victory won’t have done the Barca boss any harm.
Next weekend they face an awkward trip away to Deportivo Alaves. After a poor start to the campaign, Pablo Machin’s side has moved away from the relegation zone after taking six points from the last three games, including victories over Athletic Bilbao and Real Valladolid.
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The post Champions League: Messi Rounds Off A Great Night for Barcelona appeared first on SBOTOP.