Juventus and Monaco played out a less-than-enthralling 0-0 draw on Wednesday night and the Italian side advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since 2002/2003 thanks to their 1-0 aggregate score from a lucky penalty kick in the first leg.
Monaco opened the game well. Once again, the Ligue 1 side displayed wonderful tactical organization up top and in back. They held on to the ball much better than they had in the first leg and managed to send in some low crosses and force saves from Buffon. Monaco’s Bernando Silva was a busy man up top and created their best chances of the half, including one threatening cross that was barely cleared by Barzagli.
With the security that an away goal would have provided for Juventus and the quality they have up top in Vidal, Tevez and Morata, it’s fair to say they significantly lacked in the attack. Subasic had been a busy man in the first leg for Monaco but this time around he was unthreatened in back and was able to come off his line to collect balls in from the wings. His biggest save came in the 26th minute when he was quick off his line to deny Leichsteiner a dangerous cross. Tevez had a few goes from distance, but for the most part his side were comfortable sitting back and defending rather than really pushing for a goal.
At the end of the first half the two teams were tied 0-0 with Monaco looking like the side who would find the back of the net. Coming out of the break, Dimitar Berbatov was brought on to try and liven up Monaco’s attack. The home side were off and running at the start of the whistle and Carrasco had a brilliant run that was halted when he slipped and fell before he could get the ball across the box to his prowling striker. Evra and Buffon almost gifted Monaco a goal when the Italian keeper came out to punch away an effort from Carrasco and missed the ball. Luckily Juventus’s seasoned French defender was able to collect himself and clear the ball off the line before it could be tapped in. Morata was quick on the counter attack, hoping to catch Monaco pushed up but Bernardo Silva was just as good in back as he was up top and conceded a clever and necessary tactical foul to stop the Spaniard in his run at goal.
Monaco were exponentially better at creating chances for themselves than they were in the first leg and were unlucky not to score on several occasions. In spite of committing numbers forward, they were quick to reorganize when possession was turned over to Juventus and handled the speedy attack from Tevez and Morata well. It was a clash of two very defensive-minded sides and in the end, the one lucky penalty decision from the first leg was enough to see Juventus through.
If the Italian side wants to progress any further than the semi-final in this campaign, they will need to find a spark of creativity somewhere. They were lucky to make it past Monaco, who lacked imagination up top and were easy to defend. Morata and Tevez up top have pace and wicked shots but will need to step up their passing game and their ability to play off of one another if they come up against a team like Barcelona or Real Madrid.
