Ronaldo & Juventus Frustrated In Lyon
27 February, 2020
UEFA Champions League
Result: Olympique Lyon 0-1 Juventus
Date: 26 February 2020
Venue: Groupama Stadium
Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus endured a frustrating evening after suffering a 1-0 loss to Olympique Lyon within their UEFA Champions League round of 16 first-leg face on Wednesday evening.
Bianconeri manager Maurizio Sarri made four changes, with a double switch in the heart of defence, as Matthijs de Ligt and Leonardo Bonucci returned along with Miralem Pjanic and Adrien Rabiot.
Lyon were playing deep in their own half in the early stages but came the closest to obtaining the opener in the 22nd as Karl Toko Ekambi's glancing header at the near post rattled the crossbar.
The hosts eventually broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark following the unmarked Lucas Tousart steered home a strike into the top corner from the six-yarda out from Houssem Aouar's cut-back on the byline.
Ronaldo practically brought Sarri's charges back to the game with ten minutes left of the first stanza after breaking away on a counter-attack but his curling strike towards sailed just wide of the mark.
The visitors were struggling to create clear openings in the first phase of the next stanza, which prompted Sarri to inject some fresh energy just after the hour-mark as Aaron Ramsey replaced Pjanic.
Bianconeri increased their intensity after that and Paulo Dybala came near snatching the equaliser within the last 20 minutes with a first-time strike from close range that sailed agonisingly wide from Alex Sandro's cross.
Second-half substitute Gonzalo Higuain almost levelled matters for the Old Lady within the last three minutes with a strike from close range that missed inches wide of the target after weaving his way inside the box.
Dybala found the trunk of the web for Juventus with two minutes left however the goal was disallowed for offside as the Italian giants slipped to defeat and will be hoping to turn the tables in the second-leg in three weeks' amount of time in Turin.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za