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TURIN, Italy (Reuters) – Ousmane Dembélé scored early and Lionel Messi converted a late penalty in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday after Álvaro Morata canceled three offside goals for the Serie A team.
Dembélé fired a deflected shot in the 14th minute for a Barcelona side suffering from Saturday’s home loss to Real Madrid and shaken by the resignation of club president Josep Maria Bartomeu on Tuesday.
Messi capped off a fluid display from Ronald Koeman’s side by shooting home his 14th career Champions League penalty to seal Barça’s first win over Juventus in Turin and leave them atop Group G with six points in two games.
Juventus, still missing Cristiano Ronaldo after he tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago and is still rebuilding with Andrea Pirlo, were unable to register a shot on goal despite Morata’s efforts.
Barça had three chances to get ahead in two extraordinary opening minutes.
Leonardo Bonucci made a last gasp tackle to stop Messi, Miralem Pjanic saw a shot parried by Wojciech Szczesny and Antoine Griezmann fired at the post, and it was no surprise when they went ahead in the 14th minute.
Messi found Dembélé with a precise cross pass and the Frenchman scored with a 20-meter shot that deflected Federico Chiesa and went over Szczesny.
Morata took off and had the ball in the net two minutes later, but he was offside and suffered the same fate when he volleyed from a Juan Cuadrado center.
In the middle, Messi should have added a second, but fired his shot wide from the far post after it was set up by Griezmann’s clever cue.
Barça ignited the style early in the second half, locking Juve in their own half with some fluid passing moves.
Juve believed they had equalized again when Morata performed an acrobatic cross from Cuadrado but, after a long VAR control, he again ruled offside with his left heel.
Juventus defender Merih Demiral was sent off for a second warning before Ansu Fati was attacked from behind and Messi emphatically converted the penalty.
(Written by Brian Homewood; Edited by Toby Davis)
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