Barcelona Downs Ten-Man Juventus in the Champions League

 

La Liga side Barcelona got the better of Juventus on Wednesday evening in the UEFA champions league as they beat the Italian champions 2-0.

The group G game saw the tie setting up a potential clash between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the Champions League for the first time since the Portuguese left Real Madrid.

However, Ronaldo tested positive for the coronavirus after the international break, and he hasn’t recovered in time enough to play the game on Wednesday.

Juventus, led by Andrea Pirlo, has been buoyed by an inconsistent run of form. The tie in Turin saw the team start the game shaky and failed to trouble Barcelona in the first half.

The visitors duly took the lead in the first fifteen minutes through Ousmane Dembele, who shot from the edge of the box and found the net albeit with the help of a deflection.

The Frenchman wasted a couple of chances to double Barcelona’s lead as they went into the break ahead.

The hosts thought they had equalized through Alvaro Morata, but the striker was offside and the goal chalked off after VAR review.

Merih Demiral got sent off with 5 minutes left in the game with his second booking of the game.

Juventus lacked the cutting edge and rather than find an equaliser, Federico Bernardeschi committed a foul in the box in the final minutes as Lionel Messi scored from the spot in stoppage time to give Barcelona a comfortable 2-0 win. This loss was Andrea Pirlo’s first loss of the season as Juventus coach.

At Old Trafford, Marcus Rashford scored a Hattrick as Manchester United thrashed RB Leipzig 5-0.

Mason Greenwood opened the scoring in the first half before second-half substitute Rashford changed the tie with three goals in the last 15 minutes of the game.

Anthony Martial scored a penalty in between as United won their second UEFA Champions League game in this seasons’ competition.

Dortmund Beat Zenith 2-0 in Germany while Ferancvaros got their first point of the UEFA Champions League with a 2-2 draw against Dynamo Kyiv.

 

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu