On Wednesday, at the Allianz stadium in Turin, FC Barcelona faced Juventus in the Champions League. Here’s the result, what happened and what we got out of the playoff.
Ronald Koeman’s great settings
At 4-2-3-1, Miralem Pjanic received the go-ahead opposite to his old club while Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann returned home as left and right ends.
In the face of suspensions and injuries from Gerard Piqué and Philippe Coutinho, Ronald Araujo and Pedri have redoubled the central defence and offensive midfield respectively.
An early start
All in two minutes, Lionel Messi, Pjanic and Griezmann had framed shots, the latter hitting the wood.
Pjanic forgot who he was playing for, which almost charged visitors a lot.
Hitting the ball in Dejan Kulusevsky’s way, Lenglet fortunately cleaned up the mess and nothing bad happened.
Barca struggled to cope with that of the hosts
Fixed after an opening spell, many passes had to be made in and around their own endangered box.
Then Dembele spoke
A side-by-side ball from Messi was knocked down by the Frenchman. In and out of a pack of black and white T-shirts, he fired a shot from about 25 meters that was diverted and thrown to Wojciech Szczsny into the net.
A great touch of confidence for the striker and his team, who were a moment in the Champions League for them in general and the first since June 2019. Messi also had three hundred assists in his career.
Near-short-lived lead
Alvaro Morata scoring at juve’s break, real Madrid’s former forward has been declared offside.
Messi continues to chase his first open shot
Teaming up perfectly with Griezmann, the earned captain’s back heel was hit beyond the pole from a short distance.
Dembélé obviously developing in confidence
Sliding smoothly between opposition members and threatening each and every move after his goal, he seemed an absolutely different player from the shell of a guy who faced Getafe in a recent 1-0 defeat.
Later, he had the opportunity to double his account when he was created through Messi in the area. Then Dembélé tried to do Griezmann the same favor on the same break, but number 7 failed him.
Morata has been banned
Giving Araujo all sorts of problems, the sniper ruled a moment of the partial hour thanks to his effort and the score remained as is.
Leading at half-time
With his accusations achieving merit until the interval, Ronald Koeman had an explanation as to why rejoice in Dembélé’s rebirth at the most sensitive on the list.
Other positive aspects were the adulthood of a sensitive Pedri beyond its years, a functionality forged on the continent of Pjanic and an advanced Griezmann.
The negatives were, however, that they could have scored more when Araujo appeared injured.
Frenkie de Jong in central defense
Addicted to Araujo, Sergio Busquets entered the defensive midfield with Pjanic while De Jong fell to the baseline for the next 45.
Bad luck 3rd time for Alvaro Morata
Offside heel against Lenglet, when the conversion of a bouncing ball from Juan Cuadrado, the former foreigner of Spain will not be able to take a break thanks to his banned hat trick.
Ansu Fati Koeman’s next change
As Messi approached his much-needed goal, it was time to provide the decisive young man of the match by shouting Dembélé’s expenses for 66 minutes.
The end of Barcelona had dropped them, so it remained to be noted whether the young clinician could produce something if the possibility arose.
So to Griezmann
Advance on purpose thanks to a push from Messi, the World Cup winner beat the goalkeeper but cut the pole with 15 to play.
Messi escaped, albeit out of place
Fati attacked Rodrigo Bentancur as time approached, the captain controlled his third game of the season and his moment of his favorite festival by scoring the resulting penalty.
Barca arrives home with 3 points
Their form in La Liga leaves everything to be desired, but the Blaugrana now set a 100 percent record on the continent with a remarkable victory over Italian Serie A leaders.
Perhaps by the resignation of Josep Bartomeu, Messi turns out to be playing with a reduced weight and now it is the Alavés who opposes The Barca Road around the corner nationally.
Now in Barcelona, after six years in Sao Paulo, I have written extensively on these topics through progress and analysis, while I have also covered adjustment reports for
Now in Barcelona, after six years in Sao Paulo, I have written extensively on these topics through advances and research, while I have also covered adjustment reports for tournaments like the America’s Cup. In addition to writing for Forbes Sports, I edit Yellow