That’s all from me. Here’s one more match report from a dramatic night of Premier and Champions League football. Bye!
And here’s a report on Villarreal’s win over Juventus:
Here’s a report on Liverpool’s Premier League win over Arsenal:
Liverpool took their chance and, in doing so, showed Arsenal what happens when you fail to do exactly that. While the door to a title race had been left ajar for them on Monday there was always the knowledge in Jürgen Klopp’s mind that winning at the Emirates is a tall order nowadays.
That was evident during the first half, when Arsenal were the better side, but the game turned after Martin Ødegaard missed the hosts’ best chance of the night. Within eight minutes Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino had made him regret it and Mikel Arteta was left to reflect on the margins that, as he had warned pre-match, still exist between his team and those at the summit. For Liverpool, who were not at their best, a single-point gap to the lead looks deliciously surmountable.
Much more here:
The feeling is unbelievable. I don’t really have words. In my head I had decided I would take the second penalty, but I had to politely ask Gerard and he kindly gave it to me. If it’s a tap-in or a wondergoal they all count, they’re all plus one.
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Villarreal were well organised, but they were also negative and uninspiring, and it took a terrible challenge on unlikely attacking difference-maker Francis Coquelin by Daniel Rugani for the tie to swing decisively in their favour. Still, you can’t argue with 0-3 in Turin.
Juventus stank the place out tonight. Vlahovic and Cuadrado were OK, but beyond that there wasn’t a lot. Sure, they were without Bonucci, Chiellini, McKennie and Chiesa, while Dybala and Bernardeschi weren’t fit enough to start. But they created next to nothing for the final hour of the game, and when put under pressure, which wasn’t often, their defence looked fallible and eventually fell apart.
The Champions League quarter-finalists in full. A quarter-final-list if you like. Three teams from England, three from Spain, and one each from Germany and Portugal. France and Italy have no teams left:
- Chelsea
- Liverpool
- Manchester City
- Bayern Munich
- Benfica
- Atletico Madrid
- Real Madrid
- Villarreal
Chelsea have also won 4-1 on aggregate, and join Villarreal in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Final score: Juventus 0-3 Villarreal (Villarreal win 4-1 on aggregate)
90+5 mins: What a job Villarreal have done here. It wasn’t always very exciting, but never mind that, smell the scoreline!
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90+4 mins: De Ligt gives the ball away and Villarreal pour forward in search of a fourth, but Moreno can’t find a pass.
90+3 mins: There’ll be five minutes of stoppage time, perhaps a couple more because of the penalty. But this game is over.
GOAL! Juventus 0-3 Villarreal (Danjuma penalty, 90+1 mins)
A long wait for the referee to be happy with everybody’s positioning, and for VAR to check his decision, and then Danjuma strolls up, sends Szczesny the wrong way, and strokes the ball home!
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Another Villarreal penalty!
90 mins: Moreno runs down the right, pauses and passes to Danjuma, whose shot is blocked by De Ligt’s arm!
89 mins: There were a couple of occasions in the first half when Juventus might have scored, and Rulli had to make a couple of decent saves. Since the break, though, they’ve been terribly poor.
87 mins: The marking at that corner was just terrible. Juventus have been the more adventurous side, Villarreal have wasted time from the start, but it looks like the more convincing team is going to win.
86 mins: Post-goal reshuffle: Juventus bring on Moise Kean, and Villarreal bring on Alfonso Pedraza.
GOAL! Juventus 0-2 Villarreal (Pau Torres, 85 mins)
Villarreal spring forward, and Danilo prods the ball behind to stop Danjuma reaching it. The corner comes in and Pau Torres scuffs a volley into the top corner!
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83 mins: The big issue is that Juventus have no creativity in midfield, and nothing to do when they come up against a deep, numerous, well-organised double block. Bernadeschi comes on for Locatelli.
79 mins: Rugani’s punishment for giving away the penalty is to get immediately hooked, and Dybala is on.
GOAL! Juventus 0-1 Villarreal (Moreno penalty, 78 mins)
Gerard Moreno, just off the bench, sneaks his spot kick past Szczesny, who goes the right way, gets his hand to it, but can’t keep it out!
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Penalty to Villarreal!
77 mins: A quick look at the monitor and the referee turns and points to the spot!
76 mins: Szymon Marciniak, the Polish referee, has been told to have a look at a replay.
76 mins: Coquelin goes down in the penalty area, under Rugani’s challenge. He makes it look as dramatic as possible, but it did look like a foul. The referee, though, says no!
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75 mins: Another goal for Chelsea, who lead Lille 2-1 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate.
74 mins: Villarreal make a third substitution, Gerard Moreno coming on for Lo Celso.
73 mins: I’m not sure when Allegri plans to deploy Dybala and/or Bernadeschi, but some fresh ideas would be good.
69 mins: There’s been a goal! Not in this game, sure, but it’s something. In Turin, Villarreal pass the ball around and fans whistle furiously.
65 mins: A double substitution for Villarreal, who bring Coquelin on for Trigueros, and Chukwueze on for Pino.
64 mins: This game needs a goal. Villarreal couldn’t play any slower, and Juventus don’t seem to know how to get past their mass defence.
60 mins: Now Cuadrado tries his luck from way out. His shot has plenty of pace, but not enough accuracy.
58 mins: Finally Rabiot tries his luck from way out, and Rulli beats it away unconvincingly.
57 mins: Juventus keep the ball for a few minutes, passing it about, seeing if any of them can think of something constructive to do with it.
55 mins: Aurier goes down, but after a bit of rolling around decides he doesn’t require treatment and gets up again.
52 mins: Somehow neither side seems to have come out reinvigorated.
48 mins: Locatelli gets the ball just inside the penalty area, with his back to goal. Within a couple of seconds he has nine Villarreal players around him, a knot of humanity from which he can’t escape.
46 mins: Play has restarted, Villarreal pumping a ball into the Juventus area, where De Ligt wins it.
The players are back out and play is about to restart.
Meanwhile in north London, Liverpool’s quest to be genuinely bothersome to Manchester City has taken them to Arsenal, where it remains goalless with about 10 minutes of the first half remaining:
Meanwhile in Lille, Chelsea equalised with the last kick off the half and lead 3-1 on aggregate.
Half time: Juventus 0-0 Villarreal
45 mins: One final corner for Juventus comes to nothing, and the half-time whistle blows. Juventus have dominated, but Villarreal have threatened on the break and don’t seem that displeased with the current scoreline anyway.
43 mins: Juventus win another corner, bundled clear after Morata’s flicked header. As I type the two teams are level pegging at 233 passes each.
41 mins: Rulli spends an age with the ball at his feet, waiting until he’s closed down before he shows any interest in giving it to anyone else. That is disturbingly happy-for-it-to-go-to-penaltiesish behaviour.
38 mins: Lille have taken an on-the-night lead at home to Chelsea, though they trail 2-1 on aggregate. Paul Doyle has the latest on that one:
35 mins: Save! The corner bounces to the far post, where Vlahovic gets plenty of power on his header but from an acute enough angle for Rulli to cover it.
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34 mins: The ball is chipped into the area, and turned behind for a corner.
33 mins: Juventus win a free kick, level with the right edge of the penalty area but about 15 yards beyond it. It’s not an enormously promising position, but they are putting a lot of time into getting everyone positioned just so.
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29 mins: Villarreal are offering a decent goal threat now when they get a chance to attack. Danjuma crosses from the left, but Lo Celso completely misses his kick in the middle.
25 mins: Fun game, this. Aurier commits to a header, misses, and De Sciglio chests down a long ball on the left and runs into space on the left of the penalty area, but his cross hits a defender and goes behind.
22 mins: Villarreal counter, but Lo Celso’s left-footed curler goes just wide! That was an excellent chance for the visitors, with options right and left if Lo Celso didn’t feel like having a pop himself.
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21 mins: Vlahovic hits the bar! He runs onto a low cross from the left and, despite a difficult angle, thumps a first-time left-footer into the meat of the woodwork.
20 mins: Another save, Rulli pushing away Vlahovic’s 20-yarder.
18 mins: Estupinan tricks his way past Cuadrado really nicely on the visitors’ left, shuffling left, shuffling right, shuffing left, shuffling right, repeating several times in sudden, tiny movements, and then disappearing left, past a flat-footed and befuddled opponent.
15 mins: Villarreal’s first convincing attack ends with Estupinan crossing from the left, but behind all the yellow shirts in the box and away for a throw-in.
14 mins: Juventus brilliantly manage not to score! It was going to fall to Vlahovic, then Morata, then Cuadrado, then Vlahovic again, and for a few seconds they were in a constant state of about-to-score, but somehow they don’t even muster a decent shot.
11 mins: Save! Again, Juventus win it back, get down the right and Cuadrado crosses. This one dips perfectly for Morata, but he heads too close to Geronimo Rulli, who manages to push it away!
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9 mins: Lots of whistling as Villarreal pass it around again. Eventually Aurier tries a cross from the right, and it’s not a very good one.
7 mins: Juventus eventually steal it back, and Cuadrado sends in a nicely curling cross from the right that’s just too far ahead of Morata.
5 mins: Villarreal have the ball for a while in the Juventus half, but appear in no hurry whatsoever to do anything with it.
2 mins: Vlahovic has had a first touch, and unlike in the first leg he did not score with it.
1 min: Peeeeep! Game on!
The players are out and as I type enjoying the Champions League anthem.
I quite like Juventus’s trainingwear, even if someone obviously took the wrong sheet of paper off the designer’s desk and ended up printing something based on their highlighter pen doodles. The real designs are in a recycling bin somewhere, never to be seen.
The Juventus changing room is surprisingly long and narrow. You’d have thought that would be sub-optimal for pre- and mid-match orations. Perhaps that’s why they have lots of ceiling-mounted TVs in the middle, so the players at one end can see what’s happening at the other. It does however have an open storage container emitting a strange glow, like it’s the lost ark or something.
𝘽𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙞 𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙚 🎬⚪⚫#JuveVillarreal #JuveUCL #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/NYlaoqre5K
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) March 16, 2022
The teams!
Team news is in, and these are tonight’s line-ups:
Juventus: Szczesny, Danilo, de Ligt, Rugani, De Sciglio, Cuadrado, Locatelli, Arthur, Rabiot, Vlahovic, Morata. Subs: Chiellini, Dybala, Pellegrini, Kean, Bernardeschi, Pinsoglio, Perin, Miretti.
Villarreal: Rulli, Aurier, Albiol, Torres, Estupinan, Pino, Parejo, Capoue, Trigueros, Lo Celso, Danjuma. Subs: Sergio Asenjo, Mario, Gerard, Foyth, Iborra, Chukwueze, Dia, Coquelin, Pena, Mandi, Moi Gomez, Pedraza.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland).
⭐🏆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 #𝗝𝘂𝘃𝗲𝗨𝗖𝗟 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲-𝘂𝗽! 📝#JuveVillarreal #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/o5f9QgFSLB
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) March 16, 2022
Here is our starting 1️⃣1️⃣ to face @juventusfcen.
— Villarreal CF English (@VillarrealCFen) March 16, 2022
Come on you Yellows 💛!#UCL pic.twitter.com/ZjKUGRStOE
Hello world!
A beautifully poised tie, after the 1-1 draw in the first leg. But Juventus go into the second meeting not only with the advantage of being at home, but also have Paulo Dybala, Giorgio Chiellini and Federico Bernadeschi back in the squad after injury, making up for the absence of Leonardo Bonucci with a calf complaint. “This is the moment of the season that counts: it is now that we must be ‘different’ from the rest of the season,” said Massimiliano Allegri. “Villarreal are a good team with a very good coach, they concede little and are never out of the game. It is like a final and we play it at home. Since away goals no longer count double, we have to win and that’s it.”
Juve have not been beaten over 90 minutes in any competition since November - Inter beat them after extra time in January’s Italian Super Cup final, and Unai Emery tellingly said his Villarreal side “will be ready to play a competitive game and to go all the way to extra time.” - and have won all four matches played since the first leg. They are fourth in Serie A, seven points away from league leaders Milan, while tonight’s opponents are seventh in La Liga, are widely expected to lose, but are aiming to snatch a victory that might help establish them as European titans.
“We are aware of what Juventus are, their magnitude and what they represent. They are one of the most successful teams in Europe,” Emery said. “We don’t want Villarreal to be something ephemeral in the Champions League. Winning against a club like Juventus means the opportunity to keep competing at the European level. It’s wonderful to be in the Champions League and we don’t want to leave.”
Sadly, at some point over the next couple of hours, one of these teams has to. Let’s see who it’s going to be. Welcome!
