Young Boys keep cool heads to grab first point with spot-kick
MANCHESTER United’s Group H rivals Young Boys registered their first point thanks to Guillaume Hoarau’s second-half penalty in a 1-1 home draw against Valencia.
Hoarau converted from the spot in the 55th minute after Daniel Parejo’s foul on Djibril Sow to cancel out on-loan Chelsea forward Michy Batshuayi’s clinical first-half opener for Valencia.
In Group F, Lyon were denied victory by Hoffenheim forward Joelinton’s stoppage-time equaliser in a 3-3 draw in Germany.
Andrej Kramaric struck twice in the first half for Hoffenheim after Bertrand Traore had given Lyon the lead.
The French side regained the lead through Tanguy Ndombele (57) and Memphis Depay (67), but Joelinton struck in the second minute of added time.
Bayern Munich scored twice in three second-half minutes in Greece to beat Group E rivals AEK Athens 2-0.
The German champions, who went down to rare back-to-back Bundesliga defeats earlier this month, went ahead through Javi Martinez’s scissor kick in the 61st minute.
Robert Lewandowski tapped home the second, but Bayern stay behind Ajax in the table on goal difference after the Dutch side snatched a 1-0 win against Benfica.
Ajax appeared to be heading for a stalemate against the Portuguese side, but Morocco midfielder Noussair Mazraoui drilled home a shot from outside the area in the second minute of stoppage time.
Real Madrid remain top of Group G as goals in each half from Karim Benzema and Marcelo secured them a 2-1 win against Viktoria Plzen at the Bernabeu.
Patrik Hrosovsky (78) pulled one back for the Czech side to ensure a nervous finish for the out-of-sorts champions.
Roma stay behind Real in the table on goal difference as Edin Dzeko’s first-half double and Cengiz Under (50) helped secure a 3-0 home win against CSKA Moscow. MAN UNITED: De Gea; Young, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw; Matic, Pogba; Rashford, Mata, Martial; Lukaku.
Subs not used: Bailly, Pereira, Fred, Herrera, Romero, Darmian, Chong.
JUVENTUS: Szczesny; Cavaco Cancelo (Douglas Costa, 87 mins), Bonucci, Chiellini, Silva; Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi; Cuadrado (Barzagli, 81 mins), Ronaldo, Dybala (Bernardeschi, 78 mins).
Subs not used: De Sciglio, Benatia, Kean, Perin.
Man of the Match: Paulo Dybala (Juventus) Referee: Milorad Mazic (Serbia) ANOTHER miserable European night at Old Trafford.
Far from one of those magic-filled games this fixture has fired in the past, this was instead much more like the game in 1996-97 where Juventus were on another level to Manchester United, and another troublingly passive display to go with the general pattern of this season.
The returning Cristiano Ronaldo — who arrived to questions about the sexual assault claim he faces — wasn’t given the kind of raucous welcome back he was in 2013 with Real Madrid, but then it didn’t matter that he wasn’t much more than quiet himself.
The Portuguese only offered the odd moment of quality, including the cross that indirectly led to Paulo Dybala’s decisive strike. That, however, was enough. The 1-0 lead was enough. This accomplished Juventus never looked like giving up the lead against a team utterly unable to lay a glove on them.
It meant this was often chastening and occasionally embarrassing for United.
Juve’s evident superiority meant there was this time no emotional rally or response from United to going behind, unlike the recent matches against the much poorer defences of Newcastle United and Chelsea, or even the defeat here to Juventus that followed that long night of the soul in Turin back in 1996-97.
Under Sir Alex Ferguson then, United at least offered the spirit to go with occasions like this at this stadium. They lost those matches because Juventus were then so much wealthier they were buying the best players in the world, while Ferguson’s young side were on such a learning curve in Europe.
Those gaps don’t exist now, when United earn so much more as a club than the Italians, so what is the lesson?
You wouldn’t learn much about attacking shape or co-ordination watching this Jose Mourinho side, anyway.
One of many other differences between the teams early on was not of star power but basic structure. While Juventus’ assured organisation made United’s lack of true attacking co-ordination all the more pronounced, the erratic nature of the home backline was so easy to pick holes in.
Dybala had early on spotted a big one, but United didn’t even notice until way too late. The brilliant attacking playmaker had repeatedly made the same run in the opening few minutes, right through the centre of Mourinho’s defence. It almost brought a goal when one break was spotted by Juan Cuadrado, but the cross was a bit too high. The warning wasn’t heeded.
From the same crossing position, and the same run, Juventus went ahead. Some of the roles were switched as it was this time Ronaldo who supplied the cross.
Cuadrado couldn’t quite connect, but that just left a completely unmarked Dybala to run in and tap in.
If the source of danger had by then become so obvious as to be depressingly predictable, it also made the culprits obvious.
Luke Shaw was so easily beaten by a Ronaldo cross that wasn’t actually that dangerously delivered, and Nemanja Matic had left an entire tranche of the midfield uncovered.
The Serbian, one of Mourinho’s main lieutenants and apparently undroppable, was playing like he was testing that status.
It was as if Juventus were targeting him and putting Matic under pressure.
That led to a lot of passes given away but, worse, a lot of necessary defensive runs not made.
Juventus weren’t even that intense, only really raising it when opportunities were presented to do so, because they knew it would bring a lot of danger.