Advantage Juventus Turin: The Italian champions, including Sami Khedira, won the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona 3-0, giving them a great chance to progress ahead of the return leg at the Camp Nou next Wednesday (20:45 CEST).
Meanwhile, Barca and Germany international goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen are hoping for a similar reaction to the Round of 16, when the Catalonians overcame a 4-0 first leg loss to Paris Saint-Germain by winning 6-1 at home, thereby turning the whole fixture around in their favour.
Dybala double, Khedira in control
The Spanish champions were disappointing over long stretches of the game in Turin. Khedira’s central role helped Juventus gain the lead through Dybala’s two goals which came in the 7th and 22nd minute. Giorgio Chiellini (55’) further improved the Italian side’s lead.
The hosts set the tone from the beginning and rendered the feared offensive firepower of Barcelona, consisting of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, almost harmless. After the Argentinean Dybala struck with a finessed effort against ter Stegen that left him with no chance to make it 1-0, Messi and company appeared shocked for only a short amount of time. A wonderful pass from Messi to play captain Andres Iniesta through came to nothing when Italian national team goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a phenomenal reflex save to deny him.
Juve’s dreams of the treble still alive
Dybala struck again a mere 60 seconds later, with former Bayern München and Wolfsburg player Mario Mandzukic setting him up.
The guests put the pressure on shortly after the break, but they could find no way to score on the Italian defense. Iniesta had a chance come his way in the 52nd minute, but Juventus took control of the game shortly thereafter.
Advantage Juventus Turin: The Italian champions, including Sami Khedira, won the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona 3-0, giving them a great chance to progress ahead of the return leg at the Camp Nou next Wednesday (20:45 CEST).
Meanwhile, Barca and Germany international goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen are hoping for a similar reaction to the Round of 16, when the Catalonians overcame a 4-0 first leg loss to Paris Saint-Germain by winning 6-1 at home, thereby turning the whole fixture around in their favour.
Dybala double, Khedira in control
The Spanish champions were disappointing over long stretches of the game in Turin. Khedira’s central role helped Juventus gain the lead through Dybala’s two goals which came in the 7th and 22nd minute. Giorgio Chiellini (55’) further improved the Italian side’s lead.
The hosts set the tone from the beginning and rendered the feared offensive firepower of Barcelona, consisting of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, almost harmless. After the Argentinean Dybala struck with a finessed effort against ter Stegen that left him with no chance to make it 1-0, Messi and company appeared shocked for only a short amount of time. A wonderful pass from Messi to play captain Andres Iniesta through came to nothing when Italian national team goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made a phenomenal reflex save to deny him.
Juve’s dreams of the treble still alive
Dybala struck again a mere 60 seconds later, with former Bayern München and Wolfsburg player Mario Mandzukic setting him up.
The guests put the pressure on shortly after the break, but they could find no way to score on the Italian defense. Iniesta had a chance come his way in the 52nd minute, but Juventus took control of the game shortly thereafter.
After forward Gonzalo Higuain missed a chance to extend the host’s lead even further after 54 minutes of play, Chiellini succeeded in doing exactly that in front of a crowd of 41,092 almost a minute later, with a headed effort that made it 3-0 to the current Italian league-leaders.
Juve made it a remarkable 22 games unbeaten in front of their own crowd, and can still dream of winning the treble. The most recent matchup between Turin and Barcelona came two years ago when the latter triumphed over the Italians in the final in Berlin, by a score of 3-1.
