Juventus hosted my beloved Manchester United in the 3rd installment of my special prediction series. I had predicted Man Utd would be losing just one of four games in one of my previous posts. The games were Chelsea and Manchester City in the Premier League and Juventus home and away in the Champions League. United’s form has been unstable this season and I cannot count how many times I have said the football has been horrible this season but they have managed to get in a decent run since the loss to West Ham on the 29th of September, 2018 losing only once to this very compact Juventus side in 6 games since then.
Romelu Lukaku did not feature for United in this fixture and the onus was on Alexis Sanchez to lead the line for the Red Devils in this tie with the most in form player Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard supporting him on either side. Manchester United kicked off the game and it was not riot in favour of Juventus as predicted by many. As a matter of fact United played well in this half in comparison to the first leg but it was still the Old Lady of Turin who dominated the game in terms of possession and chances created. Rodrigo Bentancur pulling the strings. Former Chelsea player Juan Cuadrado and Sami Khedira got the best chances of the half in the 34th and 35th minute with David De Gea in goal for United and the woodwork denying them respectively.
The first half ended goalless and at this point I would have been contented with a draw.
Just when it looked like United had taken control of the game, Paulo Dybala who scored the lone goal in Juve’s win over the Red Devils in the reverse fixture a couple of weeks ago, hit the crossbar in the 50th minute with a shot from the edge of the box. It was United’s former boy, Cristiano Ronaldo that would however give Juventus the lead with a sweet finish in the 65th minute. It was his first Champions League goal this season.
At this point I was giving up already, not because the Red Devils were not doing enough but because Juventus boasted of a defence line that would make other teams green with envy. I was chatting with a very dear person after United conceded the goal and she kept saying United will score, United will score and I was like this one is laying in bed telling me my team will score, shior.
The game wore on and in the 86th minute United substitute Juan Mata equalized with a well taken free kick from the edge of the Juve box. It looked like a draw was what would end the game at this point.
I thought wrong, a free kick by Ashley Young for United in the 90th was sent into the Juve box and was knocked over the goal line by Leonardo Bonucci for an own goal. 2-1 in favour of United and there was even a chance to make it 3-1 but Marcus Rashford was only able to shoot at Wojciech Szczęsny in goal for Juventus.
A 2-1 win for Manchester United means they are 2 points behind Juventus who have 9 points on the group H log. Next up for my darling United is the Manchester Derby against Manchester City on Sunday.
Thanks for stopping by. BLESS!!!
