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They fired two penalties from Cristiano Ronaldo Juventus to an impressive 3-0 victory in Barcelona which earned them first place in Group G of the Champions League. The forward won his battle against Lionel Messi at Camp Nou when Juve beat the home team.
Weston McKennie also scored early as Juventus earned the three-goal victory they needed to take their opponents to first place. Messi was left blank, which means he is still two behind Pelé’s record for goals for a single club and still stuck at 641.
Juventus scored first in the 13th minute, when Ronaldo landed a controversial penalty shot. The striker became entangled with Ronald Araújo, with the pair falling into the area, and, despite Barça’s anger, the referee sanctioned a penalty. Ronaldo shot him down the middle, scoring for the first time in a Champions League match against a team with Messi.
The visitors doubled their lead seven minutes later when McKennie threw a Juan Cuadrado cross from six yards after Aaron Ramsey’s run.
Messi was denied by Gianluigi Buffon a minute later and shot the goalkeeper twice before half-time as Barça tried to find their way back. But Ronaldo scored again six minutes into the second period when he scored another penalty. The referee needed to check his monitor during a VAR review after Clément Lenglet drove into the area before awarding the penalty and Ronaldo sent Marc-André ter Stegen down the wrong path.
Antoine Griezmann’s header hit the crossbar five minutes later and Buffon continued to frustrate Messi before Griezmann returned wide to the far post. The visitors thought they had a quarter with 15 minutes to go, but Leonardo Bonucci’s effort was ruled out for offside after he reached into Cristiano’s knockdown.
Barcelona’s 25-game undefeated streak in the Champions League group stage ended, a sequence dating back to 2016, and Buffon prevented Messi from seizing late consolation with a good low save.
In other parts of the group, Dynamo of Kiev hit Ferencvaros 1-0 thanks to Denys Popov’s goal in third place.
In Group E, which also includes Chelsea, Jules Koundé added Youssef En-Nesyri’s double as Seville won 3-1 in Rennes.
In Group F, Lazio qualified for the last 16 for the first time since 1999 after drawing 2-2 with Bruges Club. Joaquín Correa gave the home team the lead before Ruud Vormer leveled just for Ciro Immobile’s penalty to restore Lazio’s lead. Eduard Sobol was sent off in the first half by the visiting team, but a late header from Hans Vanaken earned them a point. Brugge will enter the Europa League after finishing third, two points behind Lazio.
Lukasz Piszczek and Axel Witsel scored in the second half as group winners Borussia Dortmund rallied from 1-0 down to win 2-1 in Zenit Saint Petersburg after Sebastián Driussi gave the advantage to the locals.
