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Juventus 2-0 Malmo ![malmo]()
Tevez 59, 90 (J)
Champions League – Game 1 [16th September 2014] – Juventus Stadium
After last season’s disappointing Champions League run from our Old Lady, today, Max Allegri’s men took an opportunity to start the new campaign with 3 points and succeeded. Despite some poor individual performances at times, like in the previous two matches this season, Juventus managed not only a hard-fought victory, but a third consecutive clean sheet ahead of the Milan clash this Saturday.
With the team still coping with a few injuries and suspensions, Allegri went into this match with the familiar 3-5-2 again and included Asamoah in his most comfortable Center-Mid position with Patrice Evra taking over on the left flank. While Vidal and Pirlo were unavailable, their fill-ins mastered their respective positions and bossed the midfield along with Il Principino, Claudio Marchisio. After nearly an hour of not scoring and Asamoah doing everything he could to make his mark and score from distance, finally Tevez would not only break the deadlock in the Champions League opener, but also score his first Champions League goal in 5 years. It took a beautiful play between Tevez and an electric back-heel from Asamoah for Tevez to slide a shot to the far post beating Olsen while doing so. Not since last season have we seen Tevez so happy after scoring a goal as he celebrated in style with his own little twist on “the robot.”
It didn’t take much longer for Tevez to get his second through a beautiful Free-kick from 20 yards away from goal. Perhaps taking tips from Andrea Pirlo, the Argentine curled an absolute picture-esque shot to beat Olsen for the second time in the match, again celebrating with another robot dance.
Luckily, Giorgio Chiellini was back and took the pitch by storm, not allowing any concrete chances for Malmo to take advantage of as he played with heart and grit pairing with Bonucci. Unfortunately, there were a few times where Chiellini was forced to raise his voice and tell Evra–who at times looked very slow–to keep pushing forward and to help on defense. As per the French Wingback, aside from a few good crosses, his performance was certainly one to build on and further improve after being significantly outclassed by Asamoah in that role.
Again, Marchisio played in the Regista position and every time he does, it seems more and more fitting for the Little Prince. Because the Gobbi controlled the ball for the majority of the match without any real pressure or threats from the Swedish-side, Asamoah and Pogba were able to further advance up the pitch to support Llorente and Tevez, who were fantastic. Llorente, however, was picked out by Lichtsteiner a number of times–as we’ve seen in the past–but failed to find the back of the net, aside from one goal that was immediately called offside by the linesman. Llorente had nearly doubled the score when Lichtsteiner again sent him a beautiful ball to find his head and forcing a great double-save from Olsen.
Facing a 5-3-2, it was no secret that the flanks of Juventus would have to do a lot of tracking back and attacking. Today, Lichtsteiner did not fail to impress as usual, but Evra seemed to struggle a bit more despite finding open space a number of times throughout the match.
Another day, another clean-sheet.
For the third consecutive game of the season, the Bianconeri have managed to not concede, something they found more difficult in last season’s Champions League campaign. Thankfully today was not a repeat of the Galatasaray or Nordsjaelland matches. Today, Allegri and co can go home with their heads held high as they prepare themselves for their trip to the San Siro as the Mister faces his old club of AC Milan.
Although today’s performance was not the prettiest one we’ve seen from Juve, and perhaps the game should have been put to rest much earlier than it did, at the end of the day, the three points were won and there were very positive points to be made about Tevez, Asamoah, Lichtsteiner and the defense.
Statistics
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Man of the Match: | Carlos Tevez |
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Corners | 7 |  |
Total Shots: | 21 |
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Flop of the Match: | Patrice Evra |
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Pass Accuracy: | 90% |  |
Ball Possession: | 71% |
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Fouls: | 9 |  |
Shots on Target: | 7 |  |
Formation: | 3-5-2 |
Formation:
Lineups:
Juventus: Buffon; Caceres, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner (Romulo 91), Pogba, Marchisio, Asamoah, Evra; Tevez (Giovinco 91), Llorente (Morata 86)
Malmo: Olsen; Tinnerholm, E Johansson, Halsti, Helander, Konate; Eriksson (Rakip 81), Adu, Forsberg: Thelin (Kroon 73), Rosenberg (Mehmeti 54)
Ref: Marciniak (POL)
Video Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV_jBAOq3iQ
As Giak rightly points out, another clean sheet – That;s three games in and Caceres has been our best defender. in fact, that right hand side has been the most productive – Caceres, Lichtsteiner, Pogba.
Really think we should have scored more, but guess what, we’re top of the table with 3 points and Tevez has gotten rid of that CL hoodoo at last.
POSITIVES
—————
Caceres – Going from strength to strength, our best defender.
Lichsteiner – Brilliant going forward but should have scored at least twice
Pogba – All over the pitch, always trying to create
Asamoah – Happier in the middle, had 4 shots from the middle of the pitch – I still prefer his industry on the left
Tevez – Man of the match, tireless, hard working, beautiful free kick and first goal
Morata – even in a 5 minute cameo he won us the FK that led to the goal. Exciting prospect
NEGATIVES
———————-
Evra – So many wasted passes – Doesn;t seem on the same wavelength as his teammates at times.
Llorente – isolated up front, but wasn;t the most mobile either. Relied on Tevez to do all the running around him
Wasteful – All that possession and only 2 goals – Should have been more, need to be more clinical up front and bury those chances
Next up, Milan…..at San Siro 🙂
I saw the Morata cameo, I really think he deseves a full game soon! If not against Milan, the next game should be his, he looks guaranteed to score if he gets some minutes.
Looks like I got what I wanted, a 2-0 victory! Saw Tevez coring his second goal and a nice robot dance, I was so happy 😀
Juve taking the win in a CL game and Tevez finally breaking the draught!
Olympiakos beat Atletico 3-2, wow this group will be quite an open one
Important not to lose in Madrid and then we are the favorites of the group. Because we will have the last game at home against our big rivals and it will all be up to us.
Olympiacos will be a very tough opponent, they are a very tactical team with some very good young players that run a lot, but we are better and with two very good performances we can get 4-6 points from our two games and then only have Atletico to worry about.
Let’s hope that Malmo might cut some points from Oly next game while we win or draw against Atletico. Then let Atleti and Oly fight for second place.
agreed on Olympiacos – They don’t look as straight forward was i thought it might be, home or away. Need an almighty performance to get anything in Greece or Spain….and discipline. No outbursts or rash tackles
Exactly! I believe we have good chances to beat Olympiakos, Atletico is still the stronger team, at least imo. We need to secure it before the last game, it’s too risky to let it depend on the final game
And welcome if your new to this site!
Del Piero is in India!… It’s about time I took a trip up north… or should I wait for a fixture here in the south? … I don’t know what to do. This would be greater than meeting the pope, darth vader and anybody else that matters!
Just go man! If he came to my country I’d be there waiting for him already 😛
Juve have never played Anderlecht?…Anyways.. I don’t know how to go about it. The only thing I’m sure of is like going for a game (Which will be more than anything I could ask for) but, how do people get to meet and get autographs and what not? Training sessions?
Not since I watch them, from 2002 more or less. Not a single goddamnd Belgian team or at least not on Belgian soil 🙁
I think so, a lot of people get stuff from players on the bench during the game, or autographs when players go in at half time, after the game or training sessions yeah. Or when there is some media thing going on.
But watching a game is great already!
when did they played Club Brugge in CL, thinking that after that match Juve showed interest in Stijnen 🙂
For real? I cant remember this at all
Kidnap him. Ive heard that usually leads to autographs and pictures.
And money from Mrs Del Piero.
I’ll have to catch him first…
Roma slaughtered CSKA Moscow yesterday. Great performance by them and especially Gervinho. Who would’ve thought.