Champions League Roundup | Juventus thrash Barcelona; Dortmund match postponed after explosions
A Paulo Dybala first half brace, followed by a Giorgio Chiellini second half header, placed Juventus in a comfortable position ahead of the return leg against Barcelona next week. Dortmund's game against Monaco was postponed following explosions targeted at the former's team bus yesterday.
Juventus, who haven't lost a single European home game in four years, made inroads as early as the third minute through Miralem Pjanic. However, Gonzalo Higuain was unable to tuck in the close-range header from the Bosnian's cross. It was a different story four minutes later when Paulo Dybala, with his left foot, cleverly curled the ball into Marc-Andre
Juve then doubled their lead after Gianluigi Buffon's brilliant save of Andres Iniesta set off a counter attack for the Italian side. The ball found its way to Mario Manduzkic on the left wing who cut it back for Dybala at the top of the box to curl it past
Barcelona started the second half with a more attacking intent with Lionel Messi setting up Iniesta but the Spaniard's shot was wide. As had been the trend in the game it was the Old Lady's turn to hit back, and in style, as Chiellini on a corner out-jumped Javier Mascherano to head in the third, off the crossbar, in the 55th minute.
Luis Suarez, who was facing Chiellini for the first time since the infamous biting scandal at the 2014 World Cup, had the best chance of the game when he was played in by Messi through the middle. On his favoured right foot, the Uruguayan seemed to have placed the ball into the bottom corner at the far post but an excellent, fingertip save from Buffon made sure Juventus head to the Nou Camp next week without having conceded an away goal.
The other game on the night had to be postponed after three explosions hit the bus carrying the Dortmund football team on their way to the stadium for the quarter-final tie against Monaco. Spain international Marc Bartra was injured in the incident and had to undergo surgery on his wrist.