Coming into today’s match in Munich, Juventus was one of two teams that had navigated their first eight games of this year’s Champions League without a loss. Yet within 30 seconds at the Allianz, they were down a goal. Soon after it became very clear: Juventus were not going to win today. With Bayern better by leaps and bounce, the question shifted from whether Juve’d lose to how bad they’d fall.
Thankfully for Bianconeri fans, Juve survived, if only barely. As much as they struggled in Germany, Juventus are only down two goals. Granted, last round Barcelona became the first team to turn that deficit around, but that’s a skewed way of looking at things. It’s has to be extremely rare for the better team falls behind by two goals, and if despite today’s performance Juventus are the better of these two teams, they’re certainly capable of winning by two at home.
Of course, whether they’re actually better is the issue. Coming into the day, some people thought so, but their faith proved misplaced. But if Juventus are able to get a quick goal next Wednesday in Turin? There may prove precious few seats on the Old Lady’s bandwagon.
Courtesy of FOX Soccer, here are the highlights from today’s match, a first leg that got off to a bang thanks to David Alaba and Gianluigi Buffon.