Full-time
What a very accomplished display by Juventus, who gave a masterful lesson to their young hosts. There’ll be another 90 next week in Turin. Leonardo Jardim is going to need a new thinking cap. And so might another Portuguese: because it’s not at all clear how Cristiano Ronaldo is going to score a hat-trick in the final against Juve.
Updated
90 min: Moutinho produces another good delivery from a cross on the right. This time Germain meets it, taking a running jump to head it powerfully towards goal from 12 yards. It’s more or less straight at Buffon, however, and the keeper tips it over the bar.
Juve substitution: Lemina on, Pjanic off.
88 min: Moutinho sends an inviting ball over from a freekick. Falcao and Toure both dive in vain for it.
Updated
86 min: After lengthy and fruitless probing, Monaco finally force a tiny opening in the Juve defence. But Toure after a smart run, couldn’t produce a fitting cross from the right.
83 min: Juve seem satisfied with a two-goal lead. All their focus now is on squashing any Monaco hope of whittling it down. They’ve built a fort in front of their goal and Monaco will be darned if they can breach it.
Juve substitution: Rincon on, Marchisio off.
Monaco substitution: Touré on, Silva off.
80 min: Dirar swings in another excellent cross. Chiellini goes to cut it out but misses his kick. Nobody from Monaco had anticipated that, unsurprisingly.
78 min: Dani Alves has been just splendid so far. Immaculate when defending, mischievous and incisive when attacking. What a player.
Updated
Juve substitution: Cuadrado on, Higuain off.
75 min: That’s better from Monaco, as they work the ball in to Falcao about eight yards from goal. But as he tries to spin and shoot, three defenders swallow him up.
Updated
73 min: Monaco scamper forward, with many Juve players caught upfield for once. But Germain fails to take advantage, faffing a weak cross into the first defender. Then Moutinho blasts way over the bar from 25 yards.
71 min: Monaco are ragged. Juve much more solid and fluent. The visitors look the more likely scorers.
68 min: Chiellini booked for fending off Falcao with an elbow to the face. He didn’t exactly wing the his arm, more manoeuvred it towards the place he expected the striker to put his head, if he dared. A red card wouldn’t have been a gross injustice.
Updated
Monaco substitutions: Moutinho and Germain on; Bakayoko and Lemar off.
65 min: Freekick to Monaco. Lemar fancies his chances - from 30 yards, and with Buffon in goal. He fails to beat the wall. Today Monaco are learning their limitations.
63 min: Jardim is readying some changes. He’s got to find some way to dislodge this Juve defence.
61 min: This has been a supremely accomplished performance by Juventus so far. They’re schooling a very bright side in all aspects of the game. Better defensively, as expected, but also sharper in attack.
GOAL! Monaco 0-2 Juventus (Higuain 59)
Alves and Dybala combine to dispossess Bakayoko in midfield and then they exchange passes as they make their way down the right wing. Alves then clips a perfect cross to the back post, where Higuain arrives to slide in at stab it past Subasic!
Updated
58 min: Marchisio booked for flicking out a leg to bring down Fabinho in midfield and abort a Monaco attack.
56 min: Dirar digs out a beautiful cross from the right, sending the ball bouncing across the face of goal. But it’s fractionally too far in front of Mbappe.
55 min: Marchisio nudges a defender off the ball and finds himself with a clear shot on goal from 16 yards. He bangs it hard and low, but Subasic saves with his right foot.
53 min: Mbappe tries to outwit Dani Alves. But the veteran isn’t buying the youngster’s lollipops. So Mbappe tries to outwit the referee, instead. But he clearly needs to work on his diving technique.
51 min: Fabinho collects the ball after an attempted cross by Fabinho is blocked. Silva then attempts to beat Buffon from 30 yards. You can’t say he’s not ambitious. It’s a reasonable shot, too, swerving a little as it hurtles towards goal. But it needed more than that to get past Buffon.
49 min: Monaco are certainly playing with more vim than they did in most of the first half. Jardim has obviously pointed out to them that they need to play at high speed to have any chance of regularly opening up this Juve defence, Otherwise they’ll have to go to win in Turin, where Juve haven’t lost for 49 matches....
47 min: Pjanic goofs while attempting an extravagant pass from the right wing to the left, sending it straight to Silva about 15 yards outside the Juve box! The Portuguese skedaddles forward slips the ball through to Falcao. What a chance! But he fires straight at Buffon, who got down low to hold it!
46 min: Here we go again, with the same personnel that began the game.
Half-time: Monaco 0-1 Juventus
The Italians are doing a fine job on Monaco here. They’ve pretty much smothered the young pretenders’ attacking, and shown them how to do it with a team goal of the highest quality. Monaco have to grow very fast if they’re to turn this around.
43 min: Bakayoko creates space to shoot with a nice feint past Marchisio. But there’s always another Juve player to erect a new barrier, and Bakayoko’s shot is from 25 yards is charged down.
Updated
41 min: A quick freekick from Monaco enables Silva to race into a good crossing position on the right. But if it’s goo positions you’re looking for, then any of Juve’s centrebacks could be your guide. Chiellini is well placed to head away Silva’s cross.
39 min: Chiellini scrambles the ball away at the far post as Mbappé tries to get on the end of teasing cross. “Monaco have to score twice you mean, otherwise they’re going out on away goals at the very least,” bellows CB. Not necessarily, they could lose 1-0 here and win 1-0 in Italy, then progress on penalties. But they’d have to score at least one of those penalties so I guess you’re right.
37 min: Juve have a freekick exactly 28 metres from goal according to the on-screen data. Pjanic curls it over the wall and into the arms of Subasic, according to my eyes.
35 min: Fabinho booked for a late tackle on Pjanic.
32 min: Monaco have the ball, but Juve have the lead and they’re going to protect it with all their skill and wisdom - and all their players behind the ball. You get the feeling that Monaco are going to have to summon something magical to infiltrate. They’re capable of it, mind.
30 min: So now Monaco have to do what Porto and Barcelona failed to do in previous rounds: score at least once against this Juve side. And Bakayoko just had a slim chance to do just that, but, despite stretching, he couldn’t get a firm touch on an in-swinging freekick.
GOAL!! Monaco 0-1 Juventus (Higuain 28)
What a goal! That was a sumptuous move! They worked it from back to front at speed, via a lovely flick from Dybala in midfield, before a backheeled pass from Alves tted up Higuain for low first-time shot from the edge of the area and into the bottom corner!
Updated
25 min: Corner to Juve. Pjanic sends it over. Chiellini flicks it on at the near post. It travels all the way over to Higuain beyond the far one. Slightly off-balance, the striker hook-volleys the ball back across the face of goal - a strange decision given that he had a clear shot from about seven yards. Monaco clear.
22 min: Mbappe twists one way and then the other, leading Barzagli on a merry dance before delivering a cross from the left. t’s put out for another corner. Yep, the momentum has certainly shifted in Monaco’s favour. Then again, that’s the way Juve’s old war hounds at the back like it.
Updated
21 min: Bonucci booked for taking out Falcao from behind. See, Juve can’t cope with Monaco’s flying young bucks.
18 min: Juve are not looking so composed now. Monaco are finding their zesty groove an starting to stretch the Italians. There’s been a couple of lovely flashes of Mbappe’s skill and thrust, and Buffon has just had to make another decent save, this time from a header by Falcao.
16 min: Dirar intercepts a pass in midfield and then hurtles down the right wing and delivers a terrific cross to the near post. Mbappe is first to it and directs it goalward with a lovely left-footed touch. Buffon reaction are as fast as ever and he makes a fine save, denying the striker who is less than half his age!
13 min: Juve’s players haven’t been reading the papers! After they cleared a corner they pushed out but totally ignored Mbappe, who was left free to meet Dirar’s lofted pass back in. The hottest young striker in Europe is all alone 12 yards from goal! But he doesn’t connect as well as he would have liked with the cross and heads it straight at Buffon!
Updated
12 min: Mandzukic lays the ball back to Pjanic mid-way inside the Monaco half. the Bosnian drops a nice pass over the top of the home defence for Alves, who had burst forward and hits the ball first time across the face of goal. It’s just too high for Mandzukic!
10 min: Monaco are looking nervous. They’re mislaying a lot of passes and their sharpness seems dulled by tension. Juventus are in charge at the moment. Sandro, finding plenty of space down the left, is looking especially threatening.
8 min: Silva leads Monaco’s first menacing attack. He jinks in from the left wing, past two opponents, and then pings the ball wide to Sidibe, whose cross is cut out by Barzagli.
Updated
6 min: Nice by Juve! Bonucci spanked a long pass forward to Mandzukic, who nodded down for Dybala to give the visitors a platform just outside the Monaco box. They eventually work it to Sandro, whose cross from the left is deflected out for a corner.
4 min: Juve continue to control proceedings. Their experience is telling so far. Monaco have barely had a touch. Juve haven’t mustered a serious threat - a couple of vaguely dangerous crosses, is all - but they’re preventing Monaco from getting anything going.
2 min: Juventus have no intention of allowing Monaco get into their explosive stride: they’ve spent the first couple of minutes slowly knocking the ball about.
1 min: It’s on!
The captains are in the centre circle for the coin toss. The referee gives a surprisingly long explanation of the ritual to the captains. Maybe he figured young Buffon and Falcao might be unfamiliar with the routine?
Here comes the teams! Juve are wearing their blue away kit, while Monaco don their distinctive red-and-white diagonal number. They first wore that kit, since you ask, in 1960 to commemorate their victory in the Coupe de France. And who designed it? None other than the actress-princess, Grace Kelly. Dial M for Monaco.
Updated
It looks like all France’s European hopes are on Monaco now: Lyon have just managed to flop to a 4-1 defeat to Ajax in the first leg of their Europa league semi-final. That Ajax team, mind you, might be classed as the most exciting band of youngsters in Europe if it weren’t for Monaco.
Bakayoko, by the way, will play here with a mask to protect his nose, which he broke recently. To play today he has had to overcome a bigger affliction than that, though, namely: fecklessness. For a long time there was a real risk that he would waste his talent. Jardim, who subbed him off after 30 minutes on his Ligue 1 debut, was close to giving up on him. But in the last year or so he has Bakayoko has really flourished to become the central midfielder that Chelsea, amongst other, are prepared to splurge a fortune on this summer. This is not a good match for Juventus to be without Khedira, then.
Teams:
Dang! It looks like Benjamin Mendy hasn’t recovered from the supposedly minor injury that he suffered in the victory over Toulouse on Saturday. On the plus side, Djibril Sidibé, who was expected to miss this match, will replace him at left-back rather than his usual spot on the right. And he can rampage, too. Nabil Dirar, normally a winger, will play as right-back. Juve, meanwhile, bring in Barzagali, seemingly in order to switch to a back three, with Dani Alves a wingback.
Monaco: Subasic; Dirar, Glik, Jemerson, Sidibé; Lemar, Fabinho, Bakayoko, Bernardo Silva; Falcao, Mbappé.
Subs: De Sanctis, Jorge, Cardona, Moutinho, Raggi, Germain, Touré
Juventus: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Dani Alves, Pjanic, Marchisio, Alex Sandro; Dybala, Mandzukic; Higuain.
Subs: Neto, Benatia, Cuadrado, lemina, Asamoah, Lichtsteiner, Rincon
Ref: A Mateu Lahoz (Spain)
Updated
Preamble
Hello. What a match we have in store today! If you’re not excited about this one, then you haven’t been paying attention. In the red corner we have Monaco, who for the sake of argument we’re going to bill as the most exciting young attacking team that Europe has seen since Ajax’s Class of ‘95; and in the black-and-white corner we have Juventus, who have some nifty attackers of their own but also the canniest and most tenacious defence in the whole world, backed by a goalkeeper who’s been thwarting ace strikers since the dawn of time. Truly, this is a tie that needs no hype. But what the hell, let’s give it socks.
Let’s give it stats, too. Monaco are goal-crazy: in France, they are scoring at a rate unmatched by any club since the Racing Paris side of 1960 and they have been similarly devastating on the continent, smashing four goals past the Premier League’s stingiest defence, Tottenham Hotspur, before outscoring some of Europe’s most devout attackers by hitting eight past Manchester City and six past Borussia Dortmund. That’s good going for a team that were on the brink of being eliminated by Fenerbahce in the preliminary round after losing 2-1 in Turkey. But they overturned that in the second leg thanks to a 3-1 win in which Radomel Falcao signalled his renaissance. Kylian Mbappé, meanwhile, had not even been born at that stage. But he made his first-team debut a week later - he really is a prodigy - and since then he has celebrated his 18th birthday and formed a beautiful and imaginatively destructive partnership with Falcao. In an era in which anyone who has performed more than 10 keepie-uppies has a popular YouTube reel entitled The New Messi, no one saw Mbappé coming. In fact, it’s a fine trick that Monaco have pulled, taking Europe almost entirely by surprise. Not only had no one heard of Mbappé and always believed that Leonardo Jardim was an essentially defensive coach, which he was, but few people outside France were familiar with swashbucklers such as Benjamin Mendy, Djibril Sidibé, Thomas Lemar and Tiemoué Bakayoko. The likes of Fabinho and Bernardo Silva were on some radars but not many. Now all are mainstream sensations. There’s talk of this team being picked apart by even richer predators once the summer comes, so this might be their one shot at glory. The Ligue 1 title is almost in the bag, will they become the first French club do the domestic-and-European double?
Real Madrid may have something to say about that, but only if they need to. Juventus may spare them the trouble. Juve have never lost a two-legged tie to a French club and, indeed, dumped Monaco out in the semi-finals in 1998. Gianluigi Buffon was still at Parma back then, joining Juve just after the turn of the century, since when he has won the World Cup and enough domestic titles to not notice the ones that were taken away because of institutionalised cheating at his (now-reformed) club. But he has never won the Champions League. Twice he has lost in the final. Will this be the year that one of the best goalkeepers of all time finally gets his hands on the biggest prize in European club football? Or will he have to end his career without winning the Champions League, like Mike Hooper and Massimo Taibi? With a defence featuring the likes of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci (bad choice of words: there is no one like Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci), a strikeforce featuring Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain and a midfield that is formidable even without the suspended Sami Khedira, Buffon will fancy his chances of getting a foot in the final during this first leg. As for the rest of us, let’s just sit back and enjoy. This one’s about to go off!
Updated
Paul will be here shortly. Here’s Martin Laurence with his look ahead to the match:
A game billed as the best attack in Europe against the best defence in Europe. The lower quality of Ligue 1 defences has helped Monaco score a remarkable 95 goals in 34 league games, but they put six past Manchester City in the last-16 stage and another six past Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals, so should not be underestimated.
No one is questioning Juventus’ credentials after they beat Barcelona with room to spare in the quarter-finals. They kept two clean sheets against Barcelona and have only conceded two goals in the competition all season. But, if anyone can ruin that record, then surely it’s neutrals’ favourites Monaco.
This is a game of great intrigue, orchestrated by two of the continent’s most sought after managers, both of whom have silenced critics in recent years. When Massimiliano Allegri joined Juventus in 2014 his appointment was seen as uninspiring but the former Milan boss has elevated Juve to another level since replacing Antonio Conte. Leonardo Jardim, meanwhile, was thought of as a pragmatic, organised coach but has flipped that reputation on its head by building one of the most exciting young teams seen in many years.
All eyes will be on Kylian Mbappé and Paulo Dybala after their performances in the quarter-finals, and the prospect of seeing the pair on the same field is enough to tune in on Wednesday.
