View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Soccer Laduma (@soccer_laduma)

Login

UEFA Champions League Report: Olympique Lyon v Juventus 26 February 2020

UEFA Champions League Report: Olympique Lyon v Juventus 26 February 2020

Result: Olympique Lyon 0-1 Juventus

Date: 26 February 2020

Venue: Groupama Stadium

Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus endured a frustrating evening after suffering a 1-0 loss to Olympique Lyon in their UEFA Champions League round of 16 first-leg encounter on Wednesday evening.

Bianconeri manager Maurizio Sarri made four changes, with a double switch in the heart of defence, as Matthijs de Ligt and Leonardo Bonucci returned along with Miralem Pjanic and Adrien Rabiot.

Lyon were playing deep in their own half in the early stages but came the closest to getting the opener in the 22nd as Karl Toko Ekambi's glancing header at the near post rattled the crossbar.

The hosts eventually broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark after the unmarked Lucas Tousart steered home a strike into the top corner from the six-yarda out from Houssem Aouar's cut-back on the byline.

Ronaldo nearly brought Sarri's charges back into the game with ten minutes left of the first stanza after breaking away on a counter-attack but his curling strike towards sailed just wide of the mark.

The visitors were struggling to create clear openings in the early phase of the second stanza, which prompted Sarri to inject some fresh energy just after the hour-mark  as Aaron Ramsey replaced Pjanic.

Bianconeri increased their intensity after that and Paulo Dybala came close to snatching the equaliser in the last 20 minutes with a first-time strike from close range that sailed agonisingly wide from Alex Sandro's cross.

Second-half substitute Gonzalo Higuain almost levelled matters for the Old Lady in the last three minutes with a strike from close range that missed inches wide of the target after weaving his way inside the box.

Dybala found the back of the net for Juventus with two minutes left but the goal was disallowed for offside as the Italian giants slipped to defeat and will be hoping to turn the tables in the second-leg in three weeks' time in Turin.

Related tags

Comments