Ronaldo’s beautiful bicycle-kick goal helped lift Real Madrid over Juventus.
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The Champions League is back. The biggest football tournament finally returns with four quarter-final games taking place this week. One of the first games is Juventus going up against Spanish defending champions Real Madrid in what will be a rematch of the 2017 final that occurred at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. We also have German powerhouse Bayern Munich visiting Sevilla going on at the same time. Tomorrow we have Barcelona against AS Roma, and an English Premier League clash between Liverpool and Manchester City.
Juventus v Real Madrid
Juventus Starting Line-Up: Buffon; De Sciglio, Barzagli, Chiellini, Asamoah; Khedira, Bentancur; Douglas Costa, Dybala, Alex Sandro; Higuain. Subs: Cuadrado, Lichtsteiner, Mandzukic, Marchisio, Matuidi, Szczesny, Rugani
Real Madrid Starting Line-Up: Navas; Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric; Isco, Ronaldo; Benzema. Subs:, Asensio, Bale, Casilla, Hernández, Kovacic , Vallejo, Vázquez
Los Blancos have been struggling in the Liga Santander this year, currently in 4thplace, while the Italian side have had a stronger foot in the Serie A race sitting at the top of their table.
Juventus hosting Real Madrid at Allianz Stadium started with an early three-minute goal by Portuguese attacker Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid midfielder Isco ran up the left wing from a pass by Marcelo and crossed it towards the penalty box to find a perfectly placed Ronaldo.
Juventus, who have had a stunning defensive force this season, was being broken down by the Spanish giants. It wasn’t until around the hour mark where we saw what could be one of the greatest goals in the European Champions League this season. Ronaldo’s second goal started with miscommunication between Italian goalkeeper legend Gigi Buffon and defender Chiellini in the box, which saw Ronaldo get a hold of the ball to pass to Vazquez only to be stopped by a leaping Buffon. The saved shot went towards Carvajal who crosses it to Ronaldo to score a spectacular bicycle kick goal. The goal was applauded by the Juventus fans as it was a goal to be enjoyed by any football fan. Real Madrid were having most of the ball and had multiple chances leading up to the second goal.
A struggling Juventus was two goals down, and a couple minutes later, Juventus forward Dybala is sent off after his second yellow card for committing a dangerous high kick foul on Carvajal. One-man down Juventus then took one last goal in the 72ndminute. Marcelo manages to chip the goalkeeper through a pass by Ronaldo to tap it in on the line with a defender running on his back. After the expulsion of Dybala the game heavily shifted with Real Madrid having more counter-attacking chances. In the last seconds of the game Cuadrado was close to giving his home fans a moment to celebrate but was short on the incoming pass letting it go inches off the right post.
Juventus had some questionable defending early on in the game but managed to recuperate going into the second half. However, Real Madrid’s attack and midfield was inevitably going to break through their defense one or more times, and that’s exactly what they did. Throughout the match Ronaldo and Benzema pressured Juventus’ defense which caused multiple mistakes including what lead to the incredible bicycle kick.
