Juventus give Barca another Champions League mountain to climb

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Spanish giants will need to reproduce form shown against PSG

Barcelona need another Nou Camp miracle if they are to reach the semifinals of the Champions League after a crushing 3-0 loss to Juventus in Turin.

Paulo Dybala struck twice in a stunning first half and Giorgio Chiellini added a rare third after the break as the hosts claimed a commanding advantage ahead of next week’s second leg.

Dismal Barcelona’s only hope is to repeat their feat of the previous round, when they recovered from a 4-0 first-leg loss to Paris St-Germain by beating the French side 6-1 at home.

But on the evidence of last night a second comeback looks highly unlikely after Juve dominated proceedings with the help of Dybala’s brilliant brace.

The home side hared out from the first whistle and had their first chance after less than three minutes when Gonzalo Higuain wasted a good chance in front of Barcelona goalkeeper MarcAndre ter Stegen.

Luis Enrique’s men, smarting from a domestic defeat to Malaga at the weekend, looked clueless over how to deal with their opponents’ attacking threat and fell behind with just seven minutes on the clock.

The superb Juan Cuadrado found Dybala on the right side of the box and the striker curled an excellent left-foot shot past the helpless keeper.

Barcelona responded well and could have grabbed an equaliser after 20 minutes when Lionel Messi threaded the ball to Andres Iniesta whose low shot was well saved by Gianluigi Buffon.

Moments later, Juventus surged down the left flank and Mario Mandzukic crossed for the unmarked Dybala, who fired his second of the game past ter Stegen to put the Italians 2-0 up.

Messi had an effort ruled out for offside on the half-hour before Juventus came close when Cuadrado pulled back for Miralem Pjanic who blazed over.

Barcelona started the second half in much better fashion with Messi rolling an effort inches wide of the upright and Buffon just beating Luis Suarez to an Ivan Rakitic through-ball.

Higuain rolled a weak effort at ter Stegen before Chiellini made it 3-0 after 55 minutes, out-jumping Javier Mascherano to head home the second Champions League goal of his career.

Knowing a precious away goal could still help turn the tie in their favour, Barca began to press with Suarez trickling a fine chance wide then Neymar seeing an effort blocked by the busy Chiellini in the box.

Barcelona’s mis-firing mega-stars endured more frustration in the final quarter of an hour as the Juventus defence held out.

The first leg between Borussia Dortmund and Monaco was postponed last night after the German side’s team bus was rocked by three explosions which left defender Marc Bartra requiring hospital treatment (see page 18).

Picture: Getty Images. Paulo Dybala fires home his and Juventus’s second goal of the night before half-time.