Alvaro Morata scored a brace after the break, as Juventus opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win away to Dynamo Kiev, but lost Giorgio Chiellini to injury.
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Alvaro Morata scored a brace after the break, as Juventus opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win away to Dynamo Kiev, but lost Giorgio Chiellini to injury.
Follow all the action as it happens from this game and Lazio-Borussia Dortmund on the LIVEBLOG.
The Bianconeri began their European campaign in Kiev, in a group also with Barcelona and Ferencvaros. Cristiano Ronaldo and Weston McKennie were still out with COVID-19, with Alex Sandro and Matthijs de Ligt injured. Aaron Ramsey returned in the trequartista role, but Paulo Dybala was again benched, while Giorgio Chiellini moved to the centre of the back three. Dynamo Kiev coach Mircea Lucescu gave a teenage Andrea Pirlo his debut at Brescia and missed only Oleksandr Tymchyk.
Federico Chiesa was on the left flank and had the first chance, his angled drive beaten away one-handed, but Georgiy Bushchan missed the resulting Chiesa corner and Chiellini nodded wide.
However, Chiellini pulled up clutching his hamstring after 18 minutes and immediately waved to come off, replaced by Merih Demiral.
Chiesa curled wide of the far post and Juan Cuadrado tested Bushchan with a low cross-shot, but Dejan Kulusevski almost scored a spectacular goal on 35 minutes. Aaron Ramsey skipped away down the left and pulled back from the by-line, the Swede’s back-heel flick from five yards was palmed off the line at the near post.
Within seconds of the restart, Juventus had taken the lead. It was a well-worked team move with Chiesa and Ramsey setting up Kulusevski on the edge of the area, his snapshot was only parried by Bushchan and Morata pounced on the rebound.
Paulo Dybala made his first appearance of the season, replacing Kulusevski, and immediately had a promising move when his shot was blocked in the penalty area.
Dynamo started to push more in the final 15 minutes, Serhiy Sydorchuk barely testing Wojciech Szczesny after a corner, but the Bianconeri – playing in orange – were still increasingly pinned back.
Against the run of play, Juventus doubled their lead, as Juan Cuadrado’s cross from the right was perfect for Morata to nod in from seven yards, making the run in front of his defender. It had been evident that the Kiev goalkeeper was poor on crosses, so more should’ve been made of this weakness.
Szczesny still had some work to do, making the only really tough save in stoppages on a long-range Sydorchuk scorcher.
Dynamo Kiev 0-2 Juventus
Morata 46, 84 (J)
Dynamo Kiev: Bushchan; Kedziora, Zabarnyi, Karavaev (Popov 70), Mykolenko; Sydorchuk, Shaparenko; Tsygankov (Verbic 70), Buyalskiy (Garmash 89), De Pena (Rodrigues 60); Supryaha
Juventus: Szczesny; Bonucci, Chiellini (Demiral 19), Danilo; Cuadrado, Bentancur (Arthur 79), Rabiot, Chiesa; Ramsey (Bernardeschi 79); Kulusevski (Dybala 56), Morata
Ref: Hategan (ROU)