Juventus hold off Barcelona and look capable of returning to Champions League glory

Barcelona's Neymar is comforted by Juventus's Alex Sandro. Juventus eliminated Barcelona 3-0 in two legs after the scoreless draw in Barcelona on APril 19, 2017. Alberto Estevez / EPA

Barcelona 0 Juventus 0 (Juventus win 3-0 on aggregate)

Before he left for Manchester United, Paul Pogba’s Juventus teammates were convinced that he was going to stay in Turin and help them win the Uefa Champions League this season. Juventus, the pre-eminent Italian team of the 2010s, had reached the 2015 final, but not won the competition since 1996 in an era when Serie A was the richest European league.

That’s now England’s Premier League and Pogba returned to Manchester, but his departure hasn’t stopped Juventus remaining all powerful, and they look capable of winning Europe’s top club honour without him.

Under the masterful Massimiliano Allegri, the Old Lady knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League in Camp Nou, protecting their healthy first-leg lead in a manner which Paris Saint-Germain had so spectacularly failed to do in the previous round.

For all the talk of a comeback around Catalonia, the reality was a crowd which seemed less convinced that it could happen against a side who had beaten them 3-0 in the first leg. Juventus are wilier and more experienced than PSG. They play in a tougher domestic league and had reason to be vengeful after that 2015 final defeat in Berlin, plus they had the inside knowledge of Daniel Alves, who’d finished that 2014-15 season as one of Barca’s best players.

As Alves joked with his former teammates on the bench and had to be reminded that the game was about to start, a giant flag welcomed the hosts in Italian to the “Republica Catalana” while the home fans held up cards to unveil a huge mosaic which read “More Than A Club” in English.

__________________________________

Read more

■ Real Madrid eliminate Bayern Munich in a wild affair

■ United's Europa League campaign suddenly a means to an end

■ Embattled Lyon look for Europa League advancement in Istanbul

__________________________________

Barca are proud of their status as the standard-bearers for a seven-million-strong Catalonia, but they’re judged primarily by what they do on a football field. Their 15-game winning run in European home games made them favourites to win the game, if not the tie.

Against PSG last month they’d hit their opponents with a hurricane force from the start. Against Juventus, the force was less potent, though Barca’s oft-criticised players behind their venerated front three did all they could.

Sergio Busquets was the dominant force in the middle and helped provide a base for numerous attacks. Messi shot wide on 11 minutes, Ivan Rakitic shot over on 14. Two minutes later, Messi, prone to dropping deeper to win the ball, picked a wondrous pass which skimmed beyond Jordi Alba. Messi shot wide himself after 18 minutes, the frustration clear on the face of the suited Luis Enrique. The tone was becoming clear. Sergi Roberto shot wide after 21 minutes. Luis Suarez then volleyed wide after Andres Iniesta had gone past Giorgio Chiellini to set him up. Little else got past the defender.

Iniesta, who had said his side needed the “perfect game”, showed further imperfections as he ballooned a shot well over after 26 minutes. Messi managed to at least get the ball on target, but his next strike went wide. Barca needed the spark of a goal to ease their task, to really fire up the 90,000 home fans in the 96,290 crowd. It didn’t come.

Juventus didn’t extinguish the threat, but they rode with the waves of attacks and the misfiring Neymar, Messi and Suarez, whose shots flew left, right and above Gianluigi Buffon’s goal.

The Dutch referee let the game flow, earning jeers from home fans who’d seen their side benefit from key decisions in the previous round’s comeback against PSG.

Juventus were not impotent in the first half and Juan Cuadrado’s 14th-minute run shredded the nerves of the home support — until Gerard Pique made an astonishing recovery tackle. The Italian champions also played fairly, unlike their opponents who didn’t give the ball back after Juventus had kicked it out for a Mario Mandzukic injury.

When the board went up to say there would be a minute of time added on, fans booed in frustration as they’d hoped for more. They’d seen their side score 21 home goals in their four previous European home games. Now, through their own profligacy and the parsimony of an unyielding opposition defence, they struggled to get one.

Juventus had defended their lead immaculately in the first half, with Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini leaders at the back. They became more emboldened after the break, the live wire Cuadrado shooting wide after being set up by a Gonzalo Higuain pass on 49 minutes. Cuadrado shot into the side netting a few minutes later.

The Catalans’ chances didn’t dry up. Messi shot over again, Roberto went wide again, but the visitors seldom looked uncomfortable as only one of their 19 shots hit the target.

With ten minutes to go, Barca slipped into a resignation that they weren’t going to score four goals and the travelling fans were heard clearly for the first time with a loud “Ole, Ole, Ole, Juve” chant. When Higuain was substituted late on, a surprisingly large number of fans in the main stand stood to applaud him. They were Juventus fans, proud of the disciplined display their team had put in to keep Barca out.

“This is a hard defeat,” Pique said. “But the support singing like that tonight deserves to be recorded. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen the Camp Nou like this after a defeat. It fills me with pride and makes me emotional to see that despite having lost.

“Juventus are a great team, and were the better team over the tie. I wish them the best until the final. I believe they can win it. We played our game, and at the start created chances, but they built a mountain. It was a result that was very difficult to turn around and it wasn’t to be. They are Italians and know how to defend well. They are specialists in this. They came to play their football and they succeeded.”

Juve, who’ve not conceded a single goal from open play in this season’s Champions League, go into Friday’s draw with both Madrid giants and Monaco, confident that they can become champions of Europe even without the world’s most expensive player Pogba. Barcelona? They play Real Madrid in Primera Liga on Sunday needing to avoid defeat to save their season.

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport