FULL TIME: Juventus 2-1 Real Madrid
Kroos, from the right, sends a free kick straight down Buffon’s throat. The ball’s claimed, and so is the victory for Juventus! That’s a deserved win for the Italian champions over the European version. Whether it’s enough to see them into their first final since 2003 is another matter: home victories are ten a penny when these two teams meet, and that away goal of Ronaldo’s may prove crucial. But the second leg next week promises to be another old-school classic. Who’d miss it?
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90 min: There will be three added minutes. The first sees a free kick won by Juve down the left, just outside the area. The second sees Pirlo curl a stunning free kick to the right-hand post, where Llorente is free! But the big man doesn’t connect properly with his header. It flaps harmlessly down, from four yards, and Casillas can gather. He should never have been given the chance to save that. What a chance to put the European champions in serious bother ahead of the second leg!
89 min: This game is end to end now, a stretched nonsense. Hernandez makes good down the left but his cross can’t be poked home at the near post by Marcelo. Up the other end, Pirlo’s magic wand of a leg plays an uncharacteristically clunky pass with Real light at the back.
87 min: Marchisio rakes a long pass down the right wing. Suddenly Varane miskicks, a total fresh-air shot, and Llorente is free in the area! Casillas comes off his line to narrow the angle. Llorente takes a touch round the keeper on the outside, but is left with no angle and cuts back for Pereyra. Real hack clear. Casillas did rather brilliantly there, for he could have easily taken Llorente down, at which point all hell would have broken loose.
86 min: Juve are certainly looking to keep hold of what they’ve got. Tevez, who has been his usual electric best tonight, is swapped in favour of Pereyra.
85 min: Rodriguez is booked for a very average lunge on Llorente.
83 min: Lichtsteiner barges into the back of Hernandez as the pair chase a ball out of the Juventus box on the left. There’s contact there, and it could easily have been a penalty kick. But nothing’s given. Speaking of refereeing decisions, it turns out that, in the penalty melee, Vidal was booked for demanding a red card for Carvajal in the trenchant style. Meanwhile here’s Stephen Hughes with another Uefa-sanctioned Hendrix pre-match anthem: “Remember when this all wasn’t so money-doped? Remember when only Champions were involved? Remember when it wasn’t a league but a glorious two-legged cup competition all the way through? Remember when commentaries from Eastern Europe had the satisfying crackle of a dodgy phone line connection?”
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81 min: Real are seeing most of the ball. And doing most of the huffing, and most of the puffing. They’re going nowhere right now.
78 min: Morata is replaced by Llorente. Real win a corner that proves a total waste of time. They’re throwing a lot of crosses into the Juve area, but Chiellini and Bonucci are dealing with every one.
75 min: So here’s the thing, it would appear Carvajal wasn’t booked for his role in the penalty. We know this now because he’s just seen yellow for a cynical clip on Morata’s ankles. Unless Martin Atkinson’s having a Graham Poll moment of course, but come along. The melee after the penalty award was very confusing, mind.
74 min: A sense that Real are getting a little frustrated here. Kroos has a wild slash from the best part of 30 yards. It’s not an awful effort by any means, but was never going into the top-right corner as intended.
73 min: Sergio Ramos, down the right wing with options on both sides, blooters an aimless cross out of play on the left. In the middle, Ronaldo throws semaphore shapes, involving representations of letters such as F and C.
71 min: Juve collectively skitter around across the front of the Real box. Evra attempts to break into the area, but his low cross is useless and into the side netting. A good positive break, though. Real aren’t looking particularly comfortable right now. “As Arturo Vidal is playing, surely the song should be Voodoo Chile?” wonders Shaun Wilkinson. “I love puns that only work in written form.”
68 min: Chiellini has taken a whack upside the noggin, and is swathed in blood-soaked bandages accordingly. On the upside, he gets a new shirt. And he’ll be fine to continue.
66 min: This is much better from Bale, who races after a ball down the right, pulls it back to send Bonucci the wrong way, and curls a cross to the far post. It’s a quiff-width too high for Ronaldo, who rises in a futile attempt to head home. So close to a second equaliser. Ronaldo has the face on again, but he needs to wind the old neck in, for Bale very nearly set him up there.
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65 min: A sign that Juve may be looking to lock this one down. Sturaro is replaced by Barzagli.
64 min: Hernandez comes on for Isco. Gareth Bale has done bugger all tonight, but he’s involved in Hernandez’s first move, a scrappy pinball affair in the Juve area which sees the ball, bouncing in from the right, evade both Real’s new man and Ronaldo coming in at the left-hand post. Goal kick.
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62 min: Now it’s Vidal’s turn to scamper down the left wing. He pulls the ball back for Sturaro, whose shot from 25 yards is blocked. Juve are firmly on the front foot here.
60 min: Evra is sent skittering down the left wing, after a stunning backheel from Tevez. He earns a corner, from which little of note occurs, other than a harmless game of head tennis. But Real are rocking here.
GOAL! Juventus 2-1 Real Madrid (Tevez 58 pen)
Tevez gets up and - after a pause so the referee can book Marcelo for bowling Morata over, and Carvajal for the foul - blasts home, straight down the middle! The stadium explodes into life! This semi-final is on!
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Penalty for Juventus!
56 min: Kroos’s corner is cleared. Marcelo sends a hard shot back into the box, but it’s blocked and suddenly Morata and Tevez are scooting upfield, two on two! Morata slides the ball to the left for Tevez, and he’s upended in doing so. Tevez bustles into the area, and just before he can shoot from an angle on the left, is upended clumsily by Carvajal!
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55 min: A free kick for Madrid in the middle of the Juve half. Kroos floats it into the box, earning a corner on the left off a Juve eyebrow. And from the corner ...
53 min: Vidal battles hard down the left to win a ball that’s never his. He slides a pass inside to Morata, who feeds Tevez. Tevez embarks on a tight slalom down the middle, but is barged off the ball - legally - before he enters the area. A welcome injection of pace and determination to what’s been a turgid half so far.
50 min: The first half started at a most agreeable lick. The second hasn’t.
48 min: Tevez is clearly in a can-do mood, though. He cuts in from the right and, from 20 yards, looks to curl one into the top left. He doesn’t get enough on the shot, though, and it sails harmlessly into the arms of Casillas.
And we’re off again! Real get the ball rolling. And within 60 seconds, Tevez is in the book for a fairly basic challenge on Ramos. “Did you know that Handel’s house in London was also shared by (not at the same time, I think...) one Jimi Hendrix,” writes Rusty Richardson. “That being the case, couldn’t we have a new Uefa anthem as an updated version of one of Jimi’s songs? Any suggestions?” Manic Depression?
Half-time advertisement: Features old Fiat, and bloke who doesn’t bother to put on the handbrake when he parks his car.
HALF TIME: Juventus 1-1 Real Madrid
And that’s that for the first quarter of this two-leg tie. Juventus were the better side for most of the opening half hour, but Real aren’t European champions for nothing, and they should be ahead. How did Rodriguez miss that header? It’s all set up for a fascinating second half. No flipping!
44 min: Morata and Varane tangle on the right-hand edge of the Real box. The former goes over the latter’s leg, looking for a penalty kick. It’d have been a soft one, but you’ve seen them given. The crowd pump up the volume when the decision goes Real’s way, Morata having clattered into Varane during the same episode. All fair enough.
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41 min: Real should be ahead. They ping it around, right to left, in a most delightful fashion. Almost Barcelonaesque, some would suggest. Isco’s then free in the area down the left. He clips a ball into the centre, where James dives in to score. Or he should. His header flies up into the air and crashes off the bar and out. What an appalling miss. And there we all were thinking Ronaldo had very little to do for the equaliser.
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39 min: Ronaldo falls out with referee Martin Atkinson over a minor challenge in the middle of the park. He’s got a proper face on as he rants. Then, 60 seconds later, he batters the ball into the ref’s back. I’d like to think that was spitefully intentional, but it probably wasn’t. Ah well.
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36 min: Tevez attempts a tricky backheel in the centre circle. He telegraphs it, and it’s intercepted by Ramos, whose first-time rake down the middle nearly releases Ronaldo on goal. Just a little too much juice on the pass.
34 min: Marchisio has the ball 25 yards from goal, in a fairly central position. With a little time to play with, he shapes and pearls a daisycutter towards the bottom left, but it’s going wide of the post and Casillas has it covered anyway. Not a bad looking effort, but he probably should have done a little better.
33 min: Juve stroke it around the back awhile, in the trademark Italian style, though this isn’t designed to frustrate the opposition, more to allow them to clear their heads. Here’s Nicholas Farrell, re Ronaldo’s set-piece stylings of the sixth minute: “I recently read the interview with Billy Beane on his appointment with AZ Alkmaar. Billyball would not take free kicks for exactly that reason.”
30 min: Ronaldo wins a corner down the right. Kroos’s set piece is cleared, but the ball’s soon hoicked back into the area. Some slapstick bedlam by the left-hand post, six players trying to bring a hectically spinning ball under control, before Vidal eventually takes matters into his own hands with a desperate overhead kick to clear. Juve look a little shocked at conceding that goal, after looking fairly comfortable during the opening period.
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GOAL! Juventus 1-1 Real Madrid (Ronaldo 27)
Anyone plump for next goal Juve? Bad luck. A ball bouncing into the Juventus box down the right. Most people would bring that down and then have a think, but Rodriguez leaps acrobatically into the air, scooping the ball into the six-yard box with a delicate high kick, and the ball drops to Ronaldo, six yards out. Heads. And in. So simple. The stadium falls quiet.
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24 min: But this is better from Real. And as simple a move as it gets. Marcelo rakes a long pass down the left for Ronaldo to chase. He’s got a yard on Bonucci, but uncharacteristically panics, and screws a lame effort, meant for the bottom right, across the face of goal and out of play for a goal kick. Juve go up the other end and nearly break through themselves, Lichsteiner making room for himself down the right. But he suffers a headrush upon entering the box, and slices a disgraceful shot wide right from a tight angle with team-mates waiting in the middle. Good luck in calling the next goal in this match!
23 min: A lot of whistling as Ronaldo dances down the left wing to little effect. The ball’s eventually slipped wide to Marcelo, who floats an ineffective cross into the Juventus box. Buffon yawns, scratches his arse, and plucks the ball from the sky.
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20 min: A bit of space for Rodriguez down the left. He whips a high ball to the far post, where Varane heads over from 12 yards.
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17 min: Sergio Ramos fannies around down the Real right, and has the ball stolen off him by Sturaro, who romps into the box and pulls the ball back for Tevez, who nearly finds the bottom-left corner with a low shot. Real have had the majority of possession so far, but could easily be a couple of goals down. They’ll need to watch themselves here. “I must be as cheap and simple as you,” writes Karl Gibbons. “I want goals, goals and maybe some more goals please. Sending off too much to ask?” Not at all. A bench-emptying brawl too? Why not.
15 min: Isco takes a shot from a preposterous distance, though to be fair he’s in a large pocket of space in the middle of the Juve half, so why not. The ball bounces harmlessly into the arms of Buffon, who has been busier than the home side would like, current scoreline or no.
13 min: But Real are responding well to going a goal down. Kroos, 25 yards out, sends a fast fizzer towards the bottom-left corner. It’s going in, but Buffon gets down at the last second to tip the ball round the post, a magnificent save. The resulting corner comes to naught.
10 min: Real look a little shocked for a while, but soon get their gamefaces on again. A corner’s won down the right wing and swung into the box. Buffon comes out to flap. Isco, out on the left wing, can’t turn the ball into the danger zone again.
GOAL! Juventus 1-0 Real Madrid (Morata 8)
This is so simple. A ball shuttled down the right wing, Marchisio finding Tevez in the box with a sliderule pass, just inside the box, to the right of goal. He threads a powerful shot towards the bottom left. Casillas palms it out, but only across to Morata, who is onside - just - and taps in from a couple of yards. He doesn’t celebrate against his old club. Come off it! Champions League semi going on here!
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7 min: This is a lovely open start to the game. Morata chases after a looping ball down the inside right channel and spots Casillas off his line. He looks to lob the keeper, aiming diagonally for the top-left corner, and his effort is on target. But the keeper backtracks and claims. A fine effort!
6 min: Ronaldo blooters it into the wall. He’s only scored from one free kick this season, which is a reputation-to-product ratio that would flatter Roberto Carlos.
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5 min: Bale goes on a skitter down the middle of the park, and is upended by Bonucci, ten yards from the area, just to the right of centre. The Juve defender picks up an early booking for that one. And this is a free kick in a dangerous position.
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3 min: Sturaro strides down the inside-left channel and takes a shot from 25 yards. It’s heading into the bottom-left corner, but easily claimed by Casillas.
2 min: A free kick to Real down the left. Rodriguez hoicks it into the box, which is loaded with black shirts, but Buffon claims easily at the far post. A fast start here.
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Juve set the ball rolling! The ball’s soon at Casillas’s feet. He hacks clear in the sloppy fashion, under pressure from Tevez. Marchisio has the ball, 30 yards out down the inside-right channel. He slips it forward to Vidal, who stumbles in the area under a challenge from Pepe. Casillas gathers. What a chance spurned! Vidal should have got his shot away quickly. Though it’s interesting that he didn’t claim for a penalty kick, because Pepe brushed his heels there.
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As Allen Toussaint so nearly wrote: here come the boys. Both teams are out on the pitch, 22 pairs of ears bent by the official Uefa bastardisation of Handel. Juve wear their famous Notts County influenced black-and-white stripes, Real sport their third-choice all-black number. You could argue there’s a case for the visitors choosing their second-choice neon pink number, but they’ve decided to ensure a monochrome aesthetic tonight. Hats off to them for that.
A rare old atmosphere in the Juventus Stadium tonight. And no wonder, this is Juve’s first Champions League semi-final for a dozen years. Also, it’s a Champions League semi-final. “The tie feels rather old-school, in a good way,” opines Magnus Lind. “A classic tie between two European giants that have both been underperforming in Europe for some time.” Magnus setting some high standards there, given what Real managed last season. But with the wider picture in mind, you get the point he’s making. After a decade of underachievement, to varying degrees of course, it’s good to see two of European football’s classic old brands names duke it out at the business end of this great tournament again. Though having made the argument for high standards, it would be nice if both defences thoroughly disgrace themselves tonight. I fancy a goalfest. Hey, to hell with tactical battles, I’m simple folk, and cheap like that.
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Massimiliano Allegri has made one change to the team that earned a scoreless draw in Monaco. Andrea Barzagli is relegated to the bench, with Stefano Sturaro taking his place in midfield. Up front, former Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata will be alongside Carlos Tevez. Meanwhile Real, who must do without the injured Karim Benzema and Luca Modric, top up the sparkle by recalling Gareth Bale to their starting line-up. He could do with the boost, by all accounts. “Bale’s time in Madrid appears to be going from bad to worse,” quips Joey Shaw, who sends in this clip of Bale being asked to take a photo of a fan with James Rodriguez before the game against Sevilla last weekend. Yes, it’s been a total nightmare. The winning goal in last year’s Spanish cup final. The decisive goal in last year’s Champions League final. And now everyone knows he’s the sort of straight-up guy who’s more than willing to park his ego to one side so a young fan can get a picture with their hero. It’s never enough, though, is it.
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The team news
Juventus: Buffon, Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Evra, Marchisio, Pirlo, Sturaro, Vidal, Tevez, Morata.
Subs: Storari, Barzagli, Padoin, Pepe, Pereyra, Llorente, Matri.
Real Madrid: Casillas, Carvajal, Varane, Pepe, Marcelo, Kroos, Ramos, Bale, Isco, Rodríguez, Ronaldo.
Subs: Navas, Lucas Sival, Hernandez, Arbeloa, Jese, Coentrao, Illaramendi.
Referee: Martin Atkinson of England, who presided over Real’s 2-0 win at Schalke in this year’s Round of 16, and Juve’s 3-2 home win over Olympiacos in the group stage.
A little bit of history, while we’ve got time to kill. Before all the games mentioned in the preamble, Juventus and Real Madrid had met in the European Cup on three occasions. Juventus prevailed in the quarter-finals in 1996, Real Madrid edged past the Old Lady in the second round back in 1986/87, and then there was 1961/62, when Juve became the first team to beat Madrid at the Bernabeu in European competition. Here’s Omar Sivori, then the reigning European Footballer of the Year, doing for Real in the quarters.
Much good it did Juve, though. The goal secured a neutral play-off at the Parc des Princes - Real had won the first leg 1-0 in Turin - but Sivori was afraid of flying and the team opted to take the train from Turin to Paris. It was delayed by snow, and Juve only just made the kick off. They were a goal down within two minutes, and eventually lost 3-1. Real went on to the final, losing 5-3 to Benfica, Ferenc Puskas scoring the most futile first-half hat-trick of all time. But we digress.
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Preamble
It goes to show how much the modern billion-buck Mega Clubs have skewed football that, in a four-horse race for this year’s Champions League, the famous Juventus are rank outsiders at 9-1. That’s a full six points behind the best price you can get for Bayern Munich, the third favourites. This is Juventus, two-time European champions. Juventus, finalists on five other occasions. Juventus, one of only four clubs to have won all three major European trophies. Juventus, twice world champions. Juventus, 31 times the winners of Serie A, for the majority of time the hardest league of all to win. Juventus!
But this is where we are. Juventus are the rank outsiders of the four semi-finalists, and very much considered second favourites in this semi-final tie. Their opponents are the reigning European champions Real Madrid, 10-time winners of this tournament, the most famous club of all. Their squad includes the most expensive player in the world, Gareth Bale, the second-most expensive player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, and is littered with plenty more high-end talent: Toni Kroos, James Rodríguez, Sergio Ramos, Javier Hernández, the currently injured Luka Modric and Karim Benzema. Ronaldo has scored 53 goals so far this season. The team haven’t conceded on the road for 444 minutes in this competition. Their manager is one of only six men to have lifted the European Cup as both player and coach, and just the second manager to win it three times. This lot are not half bad. Real Madrid!
Yet Juve will go into this game with hope. For a start, their roll call is not half bad either: Andrea Pirlo, Gigi Buffon, Arturo Vidal, Carlos Tévez, Alvaro Morata, the currently injured Paul Pogba. They’re unbeaten in 12 matches at home in Uefa competition, and have lost just one of 17 European home fixtures at the new Juventus Stadium. And Juve have a decent recent record against Real: since losing the 1998 final to the Madrid giants, they’ve beaten them in the semis (2003) and the round of 16 (2005), won home and away in the groups in 2008, and would surely have done better in the groups last season had Giorgio Chiellini not stupidly got himself sent off in a 2-1 defeat at the Bernabeu.
Also, home advantage is usually key when these two meet. Juve’s record at home is W5, D1, L1, while Madrid’s is W5, D0, L2. Juve will therefore feel confident of adding positively to their tally, having just wrapped up their fourth successive scudetto with a win over Sampdoria last weekend. But it’ll be tough: Real are unbeaten in nine since losing 2-1 to Barcelona at the tail end of March, winning eight of those. It’s the semi-final of the Champions League! It’s too close to call! It’s on!
Kick-off: 8.45pm in Turin (two European Cups), 8.45pm in Madrid (10 European cups), 7.45pm in London (one European Cup).
