Champions League Group Stage - Group D

We won in the end but Suarez should have been subbed off instead of Deulofeu 100%. That's just so unfair and uncalled for to treat Deulo like that. who was having a splendid performance as opposed to Suarez who is just a wasteman as of late

Wow, this match definitely won't make it to the history books.

Not only was my stream 4 minutes late but i also got this feeling that we were playing a sunday game vs Bologna. No Champions League vibe for me tonight, we dominate without having the urgency to score until 80th minute. Then we score and everyone goes home happy.

Gotta be careful with that, i wish we kill our games earlier in second half, we need consistency when we get clear scoring chances.

I personally thought we sucked and won this game because we have a more talented team and were at home.

We were dominant, which feels odd to say, because Sporting had no real opportunities to score and were gifted their goal (quite literally).

I think the early goal impacted the match, it probably messed with Allegri's tactics. We kept digging until the match was won which is a great trait for a team but this was quite an unflattering display in a lot of ways. We essentially started a regressed version of last season's team, with a worse Higuain, an unfit Pjanic and Khedira, a defense without Bonucci and Dani Alves (who is only a slight upgrade to Sturaroback).

Barcelona 9
Juventus 6
Sporting 3
Olympiakos 0

There might be some tight games but things to stay same in end.

Harmonica wrote:Barcelona lineup:

Are Messi and Paulinho brothers? I've never seen anybody gel so fast with somebody. Also the speed in this game omg.

Chiellini and Buffon just got retired on the same play

Were an atrocity of a team in Europe

0 shots for Juve in 45 minutes

pretty coo

Fastest half from Barca in Uefadrid away game in ages.

Barca should win right?

It's Messi vs Olympiakos, referee and Barca attack today. Why the *bleep* do you even bother?

RealGunner wrote:Barca should win right?

I have draw.

Insane game from Messi, too bad he had to battle 15 players today.

Can't argue with this draw. They were better for the first half and we for the second one.

Getting closer to the KO stage.

Proud of Allegri for having the stones to sub off Dybala

Dybala tried hard all game and was tired. It was the right call to get some fresh legs in there.

I understand now why Asamoah has been playing more. Alex Sandro needs to improve his form or be benched if he plays like the first half this game. Got murdered on his flank. Him, Chiellini and Pjanic were our weakest players. Which is weird cause they should be among our best.

Barzagli, Cuadrado, Higuain and Dybala the better ones.

Props to Sporting who played a great game and specially Gelson Martins killing it.

It was a very hard fought match but I don't think Dybala particularly had a great game, he's meant to take over such matches and while he featured, he lacked potency.

Cuadrado was probably the best today for us, great effort and an assist. Higuain and Mandzukic are trouble for everyone, in Europe, this tandem makes a lot of sense.

I like that we subbed off MDS and really went for it. That first half was one of the very worst first halves I've ever seen Juve play in my entire life.

However, I think we should be concerned. Were playing a worst starting 11 than last season. Douglas Costa was quite good when he came in, he's meant for nights like these.

Another useless performance in the CL. Fast losing interest in this competition and I have no big expectations anyway. Defense looks washed up. You'll notice it when we play stronger teams.

We are not going far if we continue like this....so lets try this

what happened to that elite talent pjaca and when is he following krasic to Fenerbahçe?

RealGunner wrote:what happened to that elite talent pjaca and when is he following krasic to Fenerbahçe?

ACL, he jsut returned to training. He'll be back I have faith in the kid and I think he is the next big thing. I followed him a lot, he can be good.

Dybala at n9

Tears in my eyes

Higuain with a nice goal though. It's nice that we do have attacking options on the bench and we can really go for it but that first half was easily one of the worst pieces of play I've seen. And Buffon on that goal, surely has to do better.

All in all, I don't expect us to be in Europe long if we continue on like this and I don't think we'll correct it this season

Problem with Cuadrado is even in games like this he still wastes about 50 good chances. How many times leading up to the Higuain goal was he 1 on 1 in space with a shit sporting full back only to delay doing anything for too long and make a timid pass? So frustrating. Costa/Berna (Ones that get proper minutes at least) would have made something much more easily than he did.


As for the line up, I tire of seeing a weakened version of last seasons XI start these big games. I said all along our Summer was disappointing at best and I stand by it even more so now when our coach prefers last seasons XI - Bonucci and Alves and + MDS. Basically that means all we bought was depth and weakened our XI. Ridiculous.

Of course, Mandzukic and Cuadrado shouldn't be playing all the big CL games. Our attack has zero fluidity and it would help if Dybala stopped taking long shots and occasionally tried to feed somebody in the last 20 yards or so.

Higuain again starved for service because of the way we play. Looks frustrated and is frustrating to watch at Juventus this season. With the attacking talent we have on the pitch we should be making several clear cut chances per game against most teams. Thankfully he was clinical in a moment where he's renowned for choking.

I think Cuadrado and Mandzukic is actually more due to defensive tactics than attacking ones. Bernardeschi is known to track back but Douglas Costa is not.

For the 4-2-3-1 to work, the wingers must be able to defend and help out the defence. Really, I think our squad is built around Dybala too much right now. If he has a good game, were great. If he's poor, or average, or marked really hard, were god awful going forward. Player like Douglas Costa and Bernardeschi have more ability to open space for Dybala because they're much more dynamic players compared with Cuadrado, who is a more traditional, one dimensional winger and Mandzukic, who is a striker.

I think we have to give Sporting credit because they got their tactics right but we did not impose our will onto this match until we were losing. We have trailed in 3 of our 4 CL matches this season. Our defence is not what it was and while these mistakes are not indicative of losing Bonucci, we are making uncharacteristic, self-inflicted errors and starting these matches with an uphill fight every time.

I don't like a double pivot of Pjanic-Khedira. To be honest, it's good for games in Serie A when we are facing a team that will park the bus and lacks the pace to damage us on the counter attack, and while this same tandem led us to a CL final last season, I don't like it. Pjanic is built for a three man midfield. The problem is then, we sacrifice an attacker. It's a difficult balance to find right now.