FULL TIME: Juventus 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
And that’s that. A strange but entertaining game of football. Dortmund were probably the best team for the first hour, Juve were the better after it. But the home side came out of both periods in credit. They’ll be very happy with their evening’s work. Dortmund will still fancy their chances in the second leg, which is set up almost perfectly. This one’s in the balance all right, Champions League knock-out football at its best. “If sub Coman does a Vinnie-Jones-on-Gazza to Marco, please say Coman Feel The Reus,” pleads Mac Millings, again proving that so much of comedy is in the timing.
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90 min +2: Blaszczykowski strides into the Juve half, down the inside-right channel. He’s got options in the box, but slips a half-arsed pass forwards towards nobody in particular, and into the grateful arms of Buffon.
90 min +1: There will be three added minutes. The first sees Schmelzer romp off down the left. He reaches the byline, then balloons a lumpen disgrace of a cross into the stand on the right touchline.
90 min: So nearly a nightmare introduction for Coman, who concedes possession in the middle of the park, allowing Blaszczykowski to bomb down the right. The winger reaches the box, but his cross into the centre is hopeless, and easily larruped clear by Juve.
89 min: And now Coman replaces Tevez.
87 min: Vidal is replaced by Padoin.
86 min: They’d have been happier had this gone in! Marchisio slips a low, hard pass down the middle for Morata on the edge of the D. Morata flicks a clever pass to the left for Pereyra, who breaks into the area. He’s one on one with Weidenfeller, albeit at a restricted angle. Pereyra prods the ball past the flailing keeper, but the ball bounces agonisingly wide of the right-hand post, with the net unguarded. So close to a precious two-goal lead!
85 min: This is scrappy nonsense right now. And Juve are more than happy.
83 min: Schmelzer tries to beat Buffon from 30 yards up the left wing. No, I don’t think so either.
81 min: Kirch is in a bit of space down the right. His high cross is met by Hummels, who heads powerfully wide right. Bonucci takes a clatter upside the head and goes down for some treatment. The clock ticks on, the home side’s friend.
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79 min: Pereyra is this close to breaking clear down the middle. He doesn’t get there in time, and can’t flick the second-phase ball forward for Tevez. But Dortmund are a bit of a shambles at the back right now. Better up front, though, and here’s Mkhitaryan breaking down the right channel again. Pereyra trips him, and he’s in the book. The free kick, from Reus, is no good.
78 min: Tevez makes good down the right, drops a shoulder, and batters a shot towards the top right. Weidenfeller, who has been distinctly unimpressive tonight, manages to meet it with a strong arm, punching round for a corner. The set piece is headed over the bar by regular nuisance Chiellini.
76 min: Mkhitaryan has a lash from 25 yards down the left. The effort’s not bad at all, zipping inches wide of the left-hand post. Buffon might not have been getting there. Dortmund are at least asking questions, though they’re being held at arm’s length here.
74 min: Immobile attempts a Lars Ricken style whistle from the best part of 40 yards. His spectacular boom from a position deep down the inside-right channel is only just over the bar. Buffon had it covered, though. And that’s Immobile’s last act of the evening, as he’s replaced by secretarial speed test Blaszczykowski.
73 min: Nothing comes from that set piece, but Juve are looking the most likely now. First Ginter and Weidenfeller get themselves in an awful tangle on the edge of the Dortmund area, only just managing to deal with a long ball down the middle, Morata lurking. The ball’s hacked out for a throw, from which another Juve corner is won, this time down the right. Chiellini meets the set piece with his nut, and that’s a goal kick. Dortmund, much the better side for so long, are second best right now. And probably have been since the restart, on balance.
71 min: Pogba jigs down the left, checks back, and finds Tevez on the edge of the Dortmund D. There’s neither much space nor time for backlift, but Tevez prods a shot inches wide left of the target. There was a slight deflection, in fact, and that’s a corner.
70 min: Juve are probably better off if the pace of this game drops. To this end, Chiellini goes down under a common-or-garden high-ball challenge with Immobile, and there’s a lovely lull.
68 min: It’s gone end to end again, in the first-half style. First Morata very nearly scoots clear, chasing a long ball down the middle, but Weidenfeller gathers on the edge of his area before the striker can get a toe to the ball. Then Aubameyang goes on a Power Meander down the right, and wins a corner. Again, the German side’s set piece delivery is an inept disgrace, and Pogba clears with a yawn.
66 min: Mkhitaryan skedaddles down the inside-right channel, a mazy run that leads to him being upended 30 yards from goal. A chance for Dortmund to load the box. Sahin curls a deep ball to the far post. There’s no yellow shirt near the dropping ball, but Lichtsteiner doesn’t get the call and heads behind for the corner. Luckily for the right back, the set piece is a complete and utter waste of everyone’s time.
65 min: Morata is sent clear into space down the left by a delicious crossfield pass by Bonucci. He can’t find a team-mate with the cross. Juve are beginning to set about Dortmund for the first time in this tie.
62 min: A ball whipped into the Dortmund area from the Juve right. Schmelzer’s clearing header isn’t much cop, and Tevez connects with his boot, racing down the inside-left channel. He can’t keep the shot down. But the Bundesliga strugglers - despite being the more assured side up the other end - don’t look particularly secure at the back.
61 min: Pogba smacks Kirch in the coupon, but it looks unintentional. There’s been no side to this game, despite the high-octane commitment.
60 min: Both teams guilty of over-elaboration in the middle of the park. A relative lull as a result, but still there’s the sense that this game could crackle back into life at any second. It’s Dortmund with the crisper passing, but Juve are repeatedly threatening to break dangerously.
57 min: Morata zips down the right, then launches diagonally for Pogba, who breaks into the area. For a second it looks like Pogba’s going to break through a couple of challenges and get a shot away, but he’s eventually crowded out.
56 min: Mkhitaryan sends a blooter goalwards from a central position, 25 yards out. The ball’s deflected right for Immobile, who with his back to goal, turns through 180 degrees and lashes a shot towards the bottom right. Buffon is behind it all the way.
54 min: They certainly do need to watch themselves. Juve win another corner, this time down the left. Marchisio’s centre is mishandled by Weidenfeller at the near post, before being snaffled at the second attempt with Bonucci lurking. Juve aren’t playing particularly well, but they’re doing their best to punish Dortmund for every single defensive lapse.
52 min: And just as in the first half, Dortmund display some brittle defensive failings. Lichtsteiner wins a corner down the left. The set piece is met by Evra on the penalty spot. Evra clanks the ball up and over the neon yellow back line for Marchisio, who is free, six yards out, on the corner of the six-yard box. Marchisio scores three rugby points. He was offside, sparing some blushes for that hopeless finish. But Dortmund, despite being much the better side, really need to watch themselves here.
51 min: Dortmund have started the second half as they finished the first: the stronger side. They’re also still losing. Pereyra attempts to turn the tide a bit for Juve by breaking down the left, but he can’t manufacture a cross.
49 min: Vidal, who could easily have been booked in the first half, does see yellow now, cynically lunging into Reus as the Dortmund genius sashays at speed down the inside left. Schmelzer floats the ball into the area. It hits Immobile on the back, and breaks to Kirch, on the right-hand edge of the D. Kirch’s first touch is a high-velocity caress with the outside of the boot, the idea being to curl a half-volley into the top left. Nope! That hasn’t happened.
47 min: A fairly scrappy start to the half. Reus attempts to send Schmelzer scampering into space down the left. But there’s not enough space, the left back running the ball out of play.
After a preposterous amount of fannying around in the tunnel, the teams eventually take to the field again. Dortmund make an MBM-reporter-friendly switch, replacing Papastathopoulos with Kirch. Juve get the ball rolling again.
Half-time entertainment: Here’s Pelé scoring for Santos against Juventus. It’s not a bad one.
HALF TIME: Juventus 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
Nothing happens in added time. Dortmund have been the better side, but it’s the Italian champions who are leading. A brilliantly entertaining half of football, which has fair zipped by, and sets up a fascinating second period. No flipping!
45 min: There will be two added minutes tacked onto this first half.
44 min: Dortmund look collectively stunned at that turn of events, as well they might. Immobile chases after a long, desperate belt down the middle, but he’s offside.
GOAL! Juventus 2-1 Borussia Dortmund (Morata 43)
And having said all that, Juve break upfield quickly through Tevez, who bustles down the middle. He slips the ball out left for Pogba, who rolls a pass inside for Morata, who on the edge of the six-yard box, opens up his body and sidefoots powerfully into the bottom right. Juventus were beginning to seriously misfire as a unit, with Dortmund well on top, but suddenly the whole game has been turned on its head! What a half of football this has been!
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41 min: A corner for Dortmund down the left. Schmelzer lumps it towards the near post, where Immobile lurks. Chiellini heads clear. Juve attempt to break upfield, but the earlier threat of Tevez and Morata isn’t quite there right now.
40 min: Vidal crumps his heel down on the top of Immobile’s boot. Ooyah, oof, that’s a sore one. That could have been a yellow card, too. Juve are beginning to display a little frustration.
39 min: Dortmund are getting on top. Immobile scoops a pass down the right wing. He’s very close to releasing Aubameyang, but Evra does enough, just, tracking back. The danger’s cleared, but Juve can’t keep hold of the ball, and soon enough Dortmund are pressing again. The home support are annoyed, vocally so.
37 min: Pirlo has picked up a knock, and departs. Shame shame shame. Pereyra comes on in his stead.
36 min: Reus is striding around in the grand manner. He makes space down the left, and so nearly finds Immobile in the centre with an exquisite curler. But the ball is blocked for a corner, and the set piece comes to nothing.
34 min: Sahin, striding down the inside-right channel, hits a riser towards the top right. Buffon parries, and makes a meal of doing so, the ball nearly squirting out for a corner on the right. But the spin is kind to the keeper, and he’s able to gather second time around.
33 min: Aubameyang reaches the byline down the right and pulls back a low cross into the centre for Gundogan. But Bonucci nips in to batter clear. It’s a very open, pretty game.
32 min: Piszczek can’t continue. He’s replaced by Ginter, and helped off down the tunnel.
31 min: Pirlo slides a pass out to the left for Evra, who romps into space and shuttles one forward for Vidal, just inside the Dortmund box. Vidal miscontrols, much to the crowd’s displeasure, but that was a lovely high-speed passing move. Better control from Vidal and Morata was free in the middle.
29 min: Pogba is extremely fortunate to escape a yellow card for a late slide into the back of Piszczek. That was a fairly nasty clip on the ankles. He’ll miss the second leg if he gets booked tonight.
26 min: Hummels needlessly upends Vidal, near the left-hand corner flag. Pirlo whips a cross up, down and towards the far post, where Bonucci rises. He plants his header into the stand behind, but should really have found the top right there. Magnificent delivery by Pirlo! “It’s so good to see Juventus playing in a decent stadium with, y’know, actual atmosphere and stuff,” opines Matt Dony. “I remember Arsenal playing them at the Stadio Delle Alpi, must’ve been early 00s, and you could clearly hear a dog barking above the ‘crowd’. The magic of the Champions’ League.”
24 min: Vidal and Evra busy themselves down the left, earning a corner off Hummels. Pirlo whips the set piece to the near post. Immobile is forced to eyebrow it out for another corner. From which Dortmund nearly score. Pirlo’s deep set piece is meant for Pogba, on the edge of the box, but Reus tears up the left with the loose ball instead. The play’s switched, and Mkhitaryan, on the right-hand edge of the area, lashes a cross-cum-shot a yard or so wide of the left-hand post. This is a brilliant game, and good luck trying to work out who’s going to score next.
21 min: Tevez scampers after a long ball down the inside-left channel. He hooks it back from the byline for Morata, who attempts to guide a header into the bottom-right corner from the penalty spot. It’s not quite on target, sailing wide right of the goal, and Weidenfeller would have had it covered in any case.
GOAL! Juventus 1-1 Borussia Dortmund (Reus 18)
It’s four in four for the astonishing Marco Reus, but what a balls-up by Juventus! A ball bouncing down the inside-left channel should be swept up by Bonucci. It isn’t. Bonucci opts to leave it for Chiellini, just inside, to his left. Chiellini slips, and Reus, loitering, nudges the ball to the right, and suddenly he’s clear on goal! He strides towards the area and lashes low and hard into the centre of the net. Buffon had no chance. You’ll not see such abject defending again all season!
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16 min: Yes, a decent response. Reus swivels inside from the left, and loops a cross towards the far post, where Aubameyang isn’t far away from connecting with the noggin.
15 min: What will this early setback do for Dortmund’s fragile confidence? They respond well, in as much as they keep possession at the back for a couple of minutes, perhaps with a view to clearing their heads. The home fans are giving it plenty.
GOAL! Juventus 1-0 Borussia Dortmund (Tevez 13)
Reus attempts to break into the Juve box down the right. Better control, and he’d have been in. And it costs his team, because Juve break upfield through Morata down the left. Morata enters the area and looks for the far corner. His low shot is parried by Weidenfeller, weakly. He only succeeds in teeing up Tevez, who can squirt the ball into an unguarded net from the edge of the six-yard box.
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10 min: Moratta and Tevez romp down the inside-right channel at speed, looking to break with Dortmund light at the back. But Schmelzer slides in between them and hooks the ball out from between the Juve pair, then gets up and lashes it back upfield in one smooth movement. Sort of like Peter Beardsley’s magnificent touch against Brighton and Hove Albion here, but with the emphasis on destruction rather than creation. Sort of.
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7 min: Space for Morata down the left. He cuts a ball back for Pogba, on the left-hand corner of the box. He can’t fashion a cross. Pirlo eventually wangs a long ball to the other wing where Marchisio wins a corner. The set piece doesn’t trouble Dortmund, but the home side are applying a bit of pressure right now.
4 min: Buffon, under pressure, slices a clearance straight out of play, the ball flying into the stand neat to the right-hand corner flag. Dortmund gift possession straight back with a foul throw. It’s amateur hour!
2 min: Schmelzer flips Tevez into the air, on the edge of the Dortmund D. That should be a free kick for Juve, in a dangerous position, but isn’t. This is a nice, breezy, fresh start, though. Both teams stroking it around at speed, and adroitly to boot.
And we’re off! A magnificent atmosphere in the relatively dinky Juventus Stadium, an arena which knocks the Stadio Delle Alpi into a cocked titfer. Dortmund get the ball rolling, and launch it long. Wallop. Top-level European football right here! Juve pass it around the back awhile. But Dortmund are soon coming back at their hosts, and Immobile decides to have a thrash from 3o yards. He looks to whip a sidefoot into the top-left corner. What an effort! Not far over the bar, and it was moving around this way and that, too. A few inches lower, and Buffon would have had some early work to do.
The teams are out! Juventus are in their famous Notts County inspired black and white, while Borussia Dortmund wear their eye-blitzing yellow. The official Champions League anthem, Zadok the Bastardised Priest, blasts out of the PA system and adds not a jot to the atmosphere.
Meanwhile some fans outside the Juventus Arena have purchased one of those half-and-half scarves that make folk so very angry on the internet, even though they’re designed for kids, or tourists who might be desirous of a harmless little souvenir to remember their evening by.
Juve welcome back Arturo Vidal, who missed the recent win over Atalanta, while Massimiliano Allegri prefers Álvaro Morata to Fernando Llorente up front. Meanwhile quite a few of the Dortmund squad have had the sniffles this week; captain Mats Hummels has recovered, while Jakub Blaszczykowski makes the bench. The in-form Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Marco Reus - both architects of Dortmund’s recent Bundesliga revival, scoring seven goals between them in the last three games - flank Ciro Immobile up front.
“Looking at the names on the sheet for Dortmund leads me to ask how you and your fellow MBMers avoid a cavalcade of spelling mistakes during the course of the game,” writes Tracy Mohr. “A special key available only to Guardian keyboards?” A special Guardian key would add spelling mistakes, surely. But anyway, no such technological help for us. We simply thank the football gods every day for bringing us top stars such as Reus and Nuri Sahin, pray Sokratis Papastathopoulos has a quiet game, and hope that Błaszczykowski’s runny nose keeps him on the bench. Pity my poor sausage-shaped fingers!
The teams
Juventus: Buffon, Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Evra, Marchisio, Pirlo, Pogba, Vidal, Tevez, Morata.
Subs: Storari, Caceres, Ogbonna, Coman, Llorente, Padoin, Pereyra.
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Piszczek, Papastathopoulos, Hummels, Schmelzer, Gundogan, Sahin, Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Reus, Immobile.
Subs: Langerak, Kehl, Kagawa, Blaszczykowski, Ramos, Kirch, Ginter.
Referee: Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (Spain)
Preambulatory business
Juventus and Borussia Dortmund meet for the first time since the 1997 Champions League final, Karl-Heinz Riedle’s double, Alessandro Del Piero’s cheeky backflick, Lars Ricken’s absurd long-range hoick, all that. Eighteen years is a mighty long time. Quite the wait, especially when you consider the pair had only met for the first time in 1993, but subsequently bumped into each other regularly during an intense four-year period of high-profile European battle.
The clubs first played each other in the 1993 Uefa Cup final, a two-legged but one-sided affair. Michael Rummenigge gave Dortmund an extremely early lead in the first match at the Westfalenstadion, but Dino Baggio equalised before Roberto Baggio scored twice to give Juve a 3-1 win. Dino B scored another two in Turin, then Andreas Möller made it 3-0, and Juve lifted the trophy 6-1 on aggregate.
Möller moved to Dortmund the year after, and scored what looked like being the winner as the two teams met in the first leg of the Uefa Cup semis in 1995. But Jürgen Kohler salvaged a 2-2 draw late on in Turin, and Juve won the return in Dortmund 2-1. The Old Lady on top again, 4-3 on aggregate, though they lost the final to Parma. It wouldn’t be long before Kohler was following his compatriot Möller back to Germany.
Both teams enjoyed away wins over each other in the group stage of the Champions League the following season, Juve winning 3-1 in Germany, Dortmund 2-1 in Italy. The Germans were gubbed 3-0 on aggregate by the reigning European champions Ajax in the quarters, but Juve went on to win the trophy, 4-2 on penalties over Louis van Gaal’s side in Rome.
So all these matches were summit meetings all right. The year after, Dortmund - starring former Juve charges Möller, Kohler, Stefan Reuter and Paulo Sousa - finally came out on top, beating Juve, arguably the best side in Europe during the entire second half of the 1990s, in that memorable Munich final.
And since then ... nothing. Until tonight! Both clubs are long shots for this year’s trophy, though Juve will fancy their chances a bit more, you’d think, having not lost since a 1-0 defeat by Genoa back in October, while Dortmund have been flailing around in a most undignified manner at the arse end of the Bundesliga. They’re not half bad in Europe, though. It’s on!
Kick off: 8.45pm local time in Turin, 8.45pm back in Dortmund, 7.45pm here in London.
