An impressive series broke out at Juventus on Tuesday night. The Italians have won their last 13 Champions League matches, scoring the first goal in the match.
This did not happen once in the first leg of the Round of 16 away to Villarreal. Spaniard Dani Parejo scored the goal in the 66th minute to equalize 1-1 after Etienne Capoue managed to pass the 32-year-old completely free. The defense of the guests was not up to par in this scene and Parejo was completely forgotten.
Otherwise, the Italian defense actually showed a sovereign performance, but the attack remained very harmless: Juventus found no access to the match in the opposite half of the field even after a draw and had to let Villarreal play.
In the last stage, the host team, entering for the first time since 2009 in the knockout stage of the «First Division», was closer to scoring the winning goal. Even Swiss player Denis Zakaria, who played in Turin in the 81st minute, could not identify any accents for his team.
Vlahovic with a perfect debut in CL
Massimiliano Allegri’s team started very strong and at lightning speed: Dusan Vlahovic took the lead after just 32 seconds. The newcomer from Juventus skilfully took a long ball on his debut in the Champions League and patted his back into goal since the round to make it 1-0.
However, Villarreal did not take long to recover from the cold start and they had better chances as a result. Giovanni Lo Celso hit the post in the 12th minute, and after two sessions, Arno Danjuma’s heel went wide.
In the end, the game did not find a well-deserved winner. This promises a lot of excitement for the return leg on March 16th in Turin. Juventus will do more than try to block the third round of 16 in a row.