Impossible? Not for this Juventus! The Bianconeri needed to win by scoring at least three goals at the Camp Nou to finish first in this group. And they did just that. Barcelona had not lost on home soil in Europe’s elite competition since 2013, but Cristiano came out on top of Lionel Messi in the latest instalment of their seemingly never-ending battle for footballing supremacy. The result avenges the 2-0 loss at Allianz Stadium when the two sides met in October.
The Juventus were rewarded for a brilliant start to the game with two early goals, the second scored by McKennie was a beauty. Ronaldo scored his second penalty of the game in the second half before helping his side to defend when Barcelona pushed hard. In vain, because the 42-year-old Buffon was determined to finish this game with a clean-sheet.
Juventus and Ronaldo too good for Barcelona
In the 13th minute, Aaron Ramsey got away from two Barcelona players in his own half and released Juan Cuadrado. The Colombian picked out Ronaldo who drove into the box and was fouled by Ronald Araujo. The striker picked himself straight back up and made no mistake, as he drilled the ball down the middle for our opener.
Seven minutes later Aaron Ramsey, Cuadrado and McKennie conjured up a delightful move that the hosts’ defence simply had no answer to. The Welshman broke inside from the left and passed to the American on the edge of the box. He picked out the wing-back down the right, whose first-time cross was perfectly volleyed home by McKennie.
The visitors did have more opportunities to extend their lead as the half wore on, but also had to withstand some pressure from home team. Gianluigi Buffon was called into action to deny Lionel Messi on a couple of occasions, including a low deflected shot from outside the area that the 42-year-old pushed behind for a corner.
Alvaro Morata also went close to getting on the scoresheet when his header from a pinpoint Alex Sandro cross looped just over the bar as Juve looked to get a third goal. Andrea Pirlo’s troops went in 2-0 up at half-time, knowing that they needed just one more goal without reply to finish top of the group.
Juve were swiftly awarded a penalty for a handball by Clement Lenglet in the 52nd minute after a VAR check. Ronaldo stepped up to double his tally and put the Bianconeri top of the group with his fourth goal of the current Champions League campaign.
Post-Match reaction :
Ronald Koeman, Barcelona coach: “I didn’t like how we began this match, without aggression, looking as if we were playing not to lose rather than to win. We never had the match under control, we were poor defensively. We effectively lost the match in the first half an hour. I always try to prepare the team specifically for how I want them to go out and start the match. But we left far too many spaces all over the pitch. Tonight we haven’t been at our level and Juve were much more convincing.”
“Frankly, I was surprised at how we started, as if we weren’t really hungry to win the match. As soon as you go 0-2 down it becomes super difficult against a team like Juve. It actually looked as if we went out fearfully at the start of the match. If your team goes out and plays and seems not to begin with confidence then that’s worrying.”
“We need our players all available. We have some good players out. If we have them back then we can compete. We know that. We’ll analyse this game, what we did wrong and that includes the fact that from 0-2 we played well. But we need to start like that.”
Andrea Pirlo, Juventus coach: “It was important for our path to continue from our positive second half in the Turin derby during the weekend. When you play with this spirit, the results come. We had the right approach to the game, I’m very pleased with our performance.”
“We prepared the game wanting to have a numerical advantage in midfield, so we could often be three against two in that part of the pitch. We knew they could have struggled to stop the central runs of our midfielders but then we were also good to take the chances we created.”
Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus forward:
“It is always complicated to play here against Barcelona because they are always are a great team. However we came here with the right mentality. We played very well in the first 30 minutes when we scored two goals and we were good also in the second when we added another and brought home the victory.”
“Scoring here is always special for me. With Messi we have shared the last 12-13 years of our lives. It’s always good to face him. Obviously people speak of our rivalry but for me it is always a privilege to face him and obviously I’m happy to score when I face him. I feel very good, goals are important but I want to continue working like this because it’s not easy to keep the same standards all the time.”
