Dusan Vlahovic will make his Champions League debut with Juventus tonight and will be aiming to score his first goal in Europe’s elite competition, imitating the likes of Marco Van Basten or Erling Haaland.
The 22-year-old joined the Old Lady in an €80m deal from Fiorentina in January. He has scored one goal in his first four appearances with the Serie A giants and will be looking for his first one on his debut in the Champions League tonight.
The Bianconeri visit Unai Emery’s Villarreal and Vlahovic will start with Alvaro Morata up front.
During his pre-match press conference yesterday, Massimiliano Allegri tried to ease the pressure on the Serbian star, saying that he ‘must protect him.’
“He must be supported and I must protect him until the end, as I protected players with less experience,” the coach said.
“It’s not just a technical question, but also psychological. For the first time, he read an entire page on a newspaper asking why he hadn’t scored. It had never happened before.”
However, expectations remain high on the 22-year-old who scored in his first Juventus appearance against Hellas Verona at the beginning of February. But who are the strikers who found the net on their Champions League debut?
Erling Haaland didn’t score one, but managed three in the first half of his first appearance in the competition in 2019, helping RB Salzburg secure a 6-2 win over Genk.
Milan legend Van Basten also scored on his Champions League debut in 1992. The ex-Netherlands striker had already netted 13 goals in the European Cup which was how the Champions League was called before the re-brand in the early ’90s.
Tino Asprilla (Newcastle United, 1997), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 2004), Karim Benzema (Lyon, 2005) and Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese, 2005) also scored in their first game in the competition while the best scorer in the history of the tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, failed to do so.
Messi scored on his fifth appearance with Barcelona, while Ronaldo put his name on the scoresheet on his 14th appearance, wearing the Manchester United shirt. That would suggest Vlahovic not to worry too much even though he’d fail to find the net tonight.
Del Piero! In 1995, Alessandro Del Piero scored in his debut game in UCL, a away win 3-1 against Dortmund.
Yes he can!
Vlahovic best signing along with Zakaria, it has been a long time since Rubentus managed such a good transfer market
Vlahovic is a long way from prove himself in the big leagues. Tonight is a good starting point but with that midfield I don’t see Juventus knocking out Villareal, which is far from a great team
No, i predict a tough opponent in Villareal. The yellow submarine might prove too big a hurdle.
angelli era worst eva era of watching juve .. cfk it #moggi #visionist
Angelli plz stop trying to buy glory!!