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Juventus has come under heavy criticism from the Italian press following their 2-0 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League with Andrea Pirlo’s team accused of ‘disappearing’ in Turin.
Without their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, the Italian team struggled to keep up with their Catalan peers after Ousmane Dembélé broke the deadlock with a deflected shot before Lionel Messi completed the scoring with a penalty in injury time.
His misery was compounded when Merih Demiral was expelled for two accounting offenses, culminating a sad night for Pirlo and Co.
Italian media outlet Tuttosport criticized the boring performance at the Allianz Stadium and asked its readers: “Has anyone seen Juve?”
Although it was pointed out that Álvaro Morata had three goals discarded for offside, the newspaper demanded more from Pirlo’s men if they want to go further in the competition.
La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport lead with the headline ‘Juve caught offside’ before hitting the club’s below par display on Wednesday night.
Leonardo Bonucci, the club’s substitute captain against Barcelona, urged his teammates to “grit their teeth” and “turn around” after the game.
“It is the moment when we have to grit our teeth, work together and bring out the best in ourselves,” Bonucci told Sky Sport Italia.
“The results have not been up to our standards lately. We knew it was difficult, even if both teams were missing a lot of players, but we made too many technical mistakes and that made it easier for Barcelona.
“We have a long road ahead of us, we know we could have done more tonight, including myself, even if I was struggling.
“What gives me hope is that desire to do something else with the ball at my feet. It means you take more risks and you can give away opportunities, but it’s something we have to work on. ‘
The defeat is yet another blow to Juve’s hopes of winning the Champions League title, given that they were easily beaten by a European behemoth that is also aiming to reach the end of the competition.
The disappointing result comes just days after Barcelona’s defeat to Real Madrid at El Clásico, and many Juventus fans hope this is the perfect time to hit while the iron was hot.
However, with the evil Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu now out of the picture, it seems things may be on Ronald Koeman’s side.
“The result could have been more,” Koeman said. ‘The only thing left was to kill the game first. At least we create the opportunities. We just have to keep working. ‘
Wednesday night’s win places Messi and company at the top of Group G, ahead of Juve, Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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