And
then there were two, with Juventus beating Real Madrid to progress through the
final and face Barcelona in Berlin. It will not be the El Classico final that
many would have hoped for, but it is going to be an interesting fixture where
the best attacking force in Europe meets the best defending side in Europe.
Looks like after this loss Real Madrid are going to end the season trophy-less
as these past few days not only saw them crash out of the Champions League but
saw their chances of winning the La Liga slip away.
Juventus lived up to their word when they said earlier this week that they would not sit back and hold their advantage, but they would take the game to Madrid and they rightly did. In the end the result was a scored draw which saw Juventus win 3-2 on aggregate. Let’s take a look at the talking points of this match.
Also Read: Talking points Bayern Munich 3-2 Barcelona
1. Real Madrid’s penalty in the 20th
minute: Real Madrid needed to be in the front foot and they
were doing exactly that, seeking an early goal which would not only settle
their nerves but also make Juventus chase the game and they could capitalize on
the counter. James Rodriguez made the most out of Chiellini’s challenge in the
box going down quite easily for referee Eriksson to award Madrid the penalty
which was calmly slotted in the middle by Ronaldo. It’s debatable whether the penalty should
have been given. The Penalty not only made Ronaldo equal the scoring with Messi
with both having ten goals this season in UCL, but also making up for the
penalty miss in the weekend against Valencia.
2. Madrid had plenty of chances:
Madrid have no one else apart from themselves to blame, for the amount of
chances they created they failed to make the most of it. They had a total of 22
attempts at goal but just managing 5 attempts on target, the shooting boots
were clearly missing on this night for the Madrid players.
3. Morata comes back to haunt Madrid:
With Madrid leading and Juventus pressing forward to find an equaliser their
persistence finally paid off in the 57th minute when Pogba headed the ball back
to Morata’s path for the young Spaniard to control the ball and volley it past Casillas to restore Juventus’ lead. The striker as expected did not celebrate,
but I’m sure he would be feeling ecstatic inside. Carlo Ancelotti on the other
would be regretting his decision for selling him earlier this year. The
standout player in this fixture has got to be Morata whose two goals in both
legs not only helped Juventus progress but also his hard work on the pitch to
run after loose balls and ball control was fantastic.
4. Juventus had chances to kill the
game: With Juventus scoring the equaliser courtesy a Morata
goal, the momentum started to swing in the Italian’s favour and they had two
clear goal scoring opportunities which they should have done better. The shot
from Marchisio which was saved smartly by Casillas who read the body movement
of the Juventus midfielder enabling him to make the save look easy. In the
dying moments of the game Paul Pogba had the chance to add the icing on the
cake when he saw his shot saved by Casillas, to be fair it was a comfortable
save for the Spanish keeper as Pogba’s shot was hit straight at him.
5. A day to forget for Gareth Bale:
If the supporters were already angry with Gareth Bale, his performance
yesterday would have infuriated the Madrid fans now. The Welshman had a galore
of opportunities and most noticeably had a similar opportunity like he had in
the finals last year where he headed the goal in extra time to see Madrid
become the champions, although this time the same header saw it go over the bar
rather than inside the goal. Tested Buffon with some long range efforts, never
created any goal scoring opportunities for his fellow players too. Could this
be the end of Gareth Bale’s Madrid career? A poor display from the Welshman
overall.
Have your say below.
Have your say below.
Joshua Ronald Ivan, follow him on Twitter.
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