Angel Di Maria came to the rescue again as Juventus take a slender 1-0 advantage to Freiburg in the Europa League Round of 16, but there is another Federico Chiesa scare.
The Bianconeri stuck with Angel Di Maria supporting Dusan Vlahovic, still missing Arkadiusz Milik and Kaio Jorge, but Paul Pogba was frozen out for disciplinary reasons after turning up late to a team meeting. The Germans had Daniel-Kofi Kyereh out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and Woo-yeong Jeong left behind, but Michael Gregoritsch returned from illness with Italy international Vincenzo Grifo upfront.
Adrien Rabiot had a huge chance with his angled drive, as the goalkeeper stuck out a boot to deflect it all the way across the face of goal. The move continued and Rabiot had the ball in the net, but only after the referee had stopped play for a rather weak Manuel Locatelli foul.
Juan Cuadrado bent his free kick around the wall, forcing Mark Flekken to palm it away at the base of the near post, but Alex Sandro had already been in doubt and limped off after just 23 minutes.
Dusan Vlahovic’s free kick was palmed out from under the bar and Gleison Bremer couldn’t keep the header down at the back post from a powerful Di Maria corner.
After the restart, Vlahovic nodded a Di Maria cross over, so the World Cup winner took matters into his own hands yet again with a powerful free header into the roof of the net on Filip Kostic’s cross from the left. After the hat-trick in Nantes, Di Maria scored each of Juve’s last four Europa League goals.
Freiburg had the ball in the net on 63 minutes when a free kick was knocked down for Lucas Holer to score from 12 yards. However, a VAR on-field review showed it had been knocked down by Matthias Ginter’s hand.
Italy international Vincenzo Grifo’s free kick sailed over the bar and substitute Federico Chiesa visibly couldn’t even run for the final minutes after a right knee sprain.
Juventus 1-0 Freiburg
Di Maria 53 (J)
Player statistic
| 24' |  |
Matthias Ginter |
| 51' | |
Lucas Höler | ||
| Ángel Di María (Assist: Filip Kostic) |
 |
53' | ||
| Bremer | |
72' | ||
| Leonardo Bonucci | |
84' |
Match statistic
