Barcelona ended the Champions League group stage in shameful fashion and found a way not to finish first in Group G thanks to a 3-0 loss to Juventus at the Camp Nou. Barça were destroyed from the start, looked toothless on the ball and gave away bad goals, showing that they are simply not good enough to win big games with Ronald Koeman.
FIRST HALF
Juventus completely dominated the first half from the start, taking advantage of their 3-5-2 formation to their advantage and tormenting Barça with their breadth, moving the ball quickly from side to side and pressing high on losing it. Cristiano Ronaldo and Álvaro Morata left space in the area and fell short on the ball, with runners in the center of the field putting the Barça defense in constant danger.
Juve scored early and did it twice: first it was Ronaldo who won and scored a somewhat controversial penalty, then Weston McKennie found himself alone inside the area to score a great volley and double the away lead. Despite the two-goal deficit, Barça showed absolutely zero creativity or purpose to advance and create chances, with a couple of weak shots from Lionel Messi that Gianluigi Buffon easily grabbed being the only highlights of Barça’s offensive outing.
At halftime, Juve was circling around a lousy Barça, which needed many adjustments to try to compete in the second half.
SECOND HALF
Koeman brought in Martin Braithwaite to try to change things, but Clément Lenglet was called for a hand in the area and Cristiano Ronaldo scored his second penalty of the night to make it 3-0 and end the game at seven minutes of the last half . .
The remainder of the half was a depressing and pathetic attempt by Barcelona to try and get back into the game, but the team seemed desperate and disorganized and couldn’t create anything except for the moments when Messi made a great play and forced. a save from Buffon.
The final whistle came mercifully to end another horrible night for Koeman’s Barça in a great game. Look, there are a lot of people on this planet who are more patient with coaches than I am, but I’m tired of this team absorbing all the games that matter. Goodbye, Ronald. Thanks for nothing.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Dest, Araujo (Mingueza 82 ‘), Lenglet (Umtiti 55’), Alba (Firpo 55 ‘); Trincão (Braithwaite 46 ‘), Pjanic, De Jong, Pedri (Puig 66’); Messi, Griezmann
Goals: None
Juventus: Buffon; Danilo, Bonucci, De Ligt; Cuadrado (Bernardeschi 85 ‘), McKennie, Arthur (Rabiot 71’), Ramsey (Bentancur 71 ‘), Sandro; Morata (Dybala 85 ‘), Ronaldo (90’ + 1)
Goals: Ronaldo (13 ‘pen., 52’ pen.), McKennie (20 ‘)
