Barca Maul Juventus 3-0 In Champions League Opener


It was a symbolic scoreline. Barcelona beat Juventus 3-0 on Tuesday night in their first Champions League match since losing to the Italian champions 3-0 on aggregate in the last eight of Europe’s premier club competition last season.
The Blaugrana are back and with Lionel Messi, they will always have a chance.
After losing to Juve, much was made of the fact that Messi had never scored against Gianluigi Buffon, while the Argentine also failed to hit the target over two legs as Barca were beaten 5-1 by fierce rivals Real Madrid in August.
That damaging defeat, allied with a tumultuous summer in which Neymar moved to Paris Saint-Germain, top targets like Marco Verratti and Philippe Coutinho were not signed and it also emerged that Messi had not put the final signature onto the contract agreement announced by Barca in July, brought much doom and gloom.
The team’s decline was a worry for fans of the Catalan club and president Josep Maria Bartomeu is facing a censure motion or vote of no confidence as former candidate Agusti Benedito seeks to gather sufficient signatures to force fresh elections next year.
On the pitch, however, things have gone surprisingly well since the Supercopa. Under new coach Ernesto Valverde, Barca have won their opening three league matches (against Betis, Alaves and Espanyol), scoring nine goals in that time and conceding none.
And Ousmane Dembele, who made his debut with an assist in the 5-0 win over Espanyol on Saturday, was handed his first start on Tuesday against a Juventus team missing Giorgio Chiellini, Stephan Lichtsteiner (not chosen in Juve’s European squad), Juan Cuadrado, Sami Khedira, Claudio Marchisio and Mario Mandzukic.
The France forward was bright in the first half with some neat runs, many of which were halted by fouls from the Juventus defence. However, the 20-year-old also looked lost on occasions and will take time to adjust to his new team.
But Dembele did play a part in Messi’s opening goal before the break, the former Borussia Dortmund forward linking up with the Argentine, who in turn played a one-two with Luis Suarez and placed a perfectly executed low drive into the corner from the edge of the box.
-Goal.com

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