United find sting in the tail to rock Juve’s home record
JUVENTUS: Szczesny, De Sciglio (Barzagli, 82 mins), Bonucci, Chiellini, Alex Sandro, Khedira (Matuidi, 61 mins), Pjanic, Bentancur, Cuadrado (Mandzukic, 90 mins), Dybala, Ronaldo. Subs not used: Perin, Benatia, Joao Cancelo, Rugani.
Goals: Ronaldo 65
MAN UTD: De Gea, Young, Lindelof, Smalling, Shaw, Ander Herrera (Mata, 79 mins), Matic, Pogba, Lingard (Rashford, 70 mins), Sanchez (Fellaini, 79 mins), Martial. Subs not used: Romero, Bailly, Fred, Darmian. Goals: Mata 86, Alex Sandro 90 (og) Referee: Ovidiu Alin Hategan (Romania)
AHORROR show from Wojciech Szczesny, yes, but only after a much improved showing from Manchester United. They offered a remarkable comeback from both their first match against Juventus in this group and going behind to Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunning opening goal here, to record a surprise 2-1 win that ended Juve’s nine year group stage unbeaten home run in Europe.
The late Alex Sandro own goal that Szczesny should have just batted away didn’t just deny Juventus a point, but also prevented them from confirming first place. United are now within two points of the Italians with two games remaining, after two dramatic late goals.
Szczesny was probably at fault for the first, and definitely was for the second.
While that result may be harsh on a Juventus team that squandered so many chances before Juan Mata’s initial equaliser, it did reflect just how much better Mourinho’s team were from the 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford.
There at least was one big early change from the first leg, to go with United initially looking much more cohesive and committed. That match at Old Trafford had been characterised — and won — by Paulo Dybala’s untracked runs right through the centre, and this was clearly something Mourin- ho had addressed. That gap just didn’t appear this time, at least from that route.
Whereas Nemanja Matic in that game just let Dybala race beyond him to score the only goal, the Serbian was here aggressive enough about everything to take the playmaker down much further back, and risk a booking in the opening few minutes. United did just look tighter in the centre, with Victor Lindelof winning some good early challenges. That also meant there were fewer good early chances for Juve.
Rodrigo Betancur had one that went wide early on, before Ronaldo (left) attempted an effort that was from a similar distance to his famous goal for United against FC Porto in 2008-09. This time it went wide, which is where Juve were increasingly forced.
It was also where they finally started to get more joy — and where that gap started to appear, as United did need some luck. David de Gea had to get down brilliantly to keep out a Juan Cuadrado cross that had wickedly deflected off Luke Shaw’s leg, but the goalkeeper was left standing there and stranded as a Sami Khedira effort bounced off the post from a Ronaldo ball. United were particularly fortunate it was the German there, rather than Dybala.
It was to be watched, because that was the first time one of the gaps from the first leg had appeared, as Juve looked for another route.
Dybala soon made his way wide himself, with that allowing the playmaker to get away