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Cristiano Ronaldo (Getty Images)
Cristiano Ronaldo He struck twice from the penalty spot to win his battle with the rival Lionel messi and guide Juventus to a 3-0 victory over
Barcelona on Tuesday, winning the Italians’ first place in Group G of the Champions League.
The former Real Madrid striker and his Argentine counterpart exchanged Ballon d’Or victories for a decade between 2008-2017 and were front men in the duels of the Spanish giants, but there was only one winner at Camp Nou, as they met for the first time. time since Ronaldo’s. departure from Juve in 2018.
Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus lost 2-0 at home to Barcelona in October without Ronaldo, he marched with Covid-19, but improved a lot and earned the first Champions League away win against Barcelona since Bayern Munich triumphed in 2013.
Both teams, tied at 15 points, were assured of qualification before kick-off, but Juve’s victory by three goals gave them a superior head-to-head record.
“When you have this desire to sacrifice yourself and an infallible sniper, like Ronaldo, you are sure that you can win these matches,” Bonucci told Sky Sport Italia.
“As we demonstrated in the derby (victory over Torino), if we play with this desire, we bring home the results we want. The next step is to do this in all our matches.
Ronald Koeman, rebounding from Barcelona’s 2-1 loss to Cádiz’s promotion in La Liga on Saturday, reacted with four changes, but the hosts got off to a bad start.
It only took Ronaldo 13 minutes to break the deadlock and score from the penalty spot after the referee called Ronald Araujo’s tackle on him foul.
Juventus did not budge and their pressure led to a second goal, American midfielder Weston McKennie flying home with a sweetly cut cross from Juan Cuadrado in the 20th minute.
The Catalans and their captain Messi finally woke up from their slumber as the attacker had a shot blocked by Matthijs de Ligt and another saved by veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, as Pjanic lunged over the crossbar.
Ronaldo scored his second from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute after Clement Lenglet clumsily drove into the box as the hosts imploded.
Antoine Griezmann, who was invisible in the first half, brushed the crossbar with a looped header from a Messi free kick, and Buffon overcame another effort, with enough pressure from De Ligt to prevent Martin Braithwaite from converting the rebound.
Leonardo Bonucci had a fourth goal disallowed for offside after he scored a shot from Ronaldo from close range, with Messi trying to no avail on the other end to answer Ronaldo, but found the 42-year-old Buffon in his way once and again. .
Griezmann criticized his team after falling in their first home defeat in the Champions League group stage since 2009.
“We were not good enough, they passed us in the first half, we lacked everything,” he told Movistar.
“Lack of attitude, desire, wanting to run, defend, attack, everything was wrong.”
Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was also unhappy.
“There are two things, one is individual errors and the other is how the team defends, they are different things,” he said.
“Right now, teams can score against us at any time. This is very difficult, we have to get out of this and work very hard.”
