Tonight was the second leg of the Championship League semi-finals contesting Juventus vs Monaco. Their clash last Wednesday left the Monaco side beaten 2-0 with two assist's from Dani Alves and two goals from Gonzalo Higuain. On Tuesday night the two sides met again and in the first 15 minutes of the game, Monaco gave the impression that they were going to give the juventus side a fight for a finals position.
As the game progressed, the Juventus side took more charge of the game and showed great football with team work, great defending, intuitive vision and passes all culminating together to create a great football watching experience.
They took advantage of their experience against a mostly youthful Monaco side and at 33 minutes into the game, Dani Alves provided a great pass to Mario Mandzukic who headed it to the keeper who stopped it but didn't hold onto it, creating a chance for the second shot by Mandzukic which went past the keeper and into the net, making his tally 3 goals in 10 matches for Mandzukic.
This made the tally for Dani Alvez assists in the first and second leg against Monaco to 3 assists. And at the 45th minute, just before halftime when the Monaco keeper Danijel Subasic saved a goal by punching the ball, It seems he did not count on Dani Alvez being behind the punched ball because before he could get back his footing, Dani Alvez had positioned himself strategically and scored a beautiful volley right under Subasic's outstretched hands.
This made Dani Alvez tally up to 3 assists and 1 goal back to back against Monaco in the two legs played against them.
The Monaco historic consolation goal
In the second half, however, Juventus had gone 690 minutes European game time without conceding any goals until 18-year-old Kylian Mbappe scored for Monaco in the 69th minute, making him the youngest champions league semi-final scorer.
His goal tally is 6 goals in 9 matches. That was, however, the last of the highlights for the Monaco side, as they couldn't get any more goals. Although getting goals against Juventus isn't easy, especially when they are at home where they haven't lost a game for 21 months and counting; again a well-oiled machine.
Juventus to probably face Real Madrid at Champions League finals
It looks like a match between Juventus who have already qualified and crowd favourite Real Madrid, who face Athletico Madrid tomorrow night but already have a 3-0 lead over them from the previous leg match up. In their last match up Real Madrid dominated over Athletico Madrid, with Christiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick in the game. It seems like a hard gamble for Athletico Madrid to score over 3 goals against a fit Real Madrid side. Then again, if they do decide to pull a rabbit out of the hat, we will be watching the match closely this evening.
Real Madrid is looking to make their own Champions League history as a team by winning the Champions League two years in a row and they have won a total of 11 Champion League Trophies.
This is by no means an easy task. The Madrid side, however, seems up to the task. Although Juventus is also playing this to win it, with great gameplay, a strong defence, midfield and offence they are by no means going to make this easy for the Madrid side. Plus this time it really just might be Buffon's last champions league final, adding incentive for the Old Lady players.
The one thing that seems certain is that these two teams, if they do meet in the final, are sure to provide the fans with a worthy game as both teams are capable of winning it, and both also seem hungry enough to give it their all to get the trophy home. And as Gianluigi (Gigi) Buffon veteran Juventus Goalkeeper stated in a post-match interview after the Monaco game, and is also cited in the Daily Mail, "It was incredibly tough, even with us leading with two goals, it was incredibly difficult but we were ready for anything they brought out toward us.
Yes, we go to Cardiff which was, well I won't say our aim because just getting to the final means nothing, I'm really happy because I'm in good shape, I can't deny the fact that if we didn't have a great team getting here again wouldn't have been possible. My teammates have been fantastic and it's thanks to the whole team that we got here. 2 years ago everyone thought it would be my last final, but that isn't the case. I thought it might be as well, but you have to believe in your dreams until the very end and believe in what you do."
Hats off to Juventus for winning the semi-final, and here's looking at the other semi-final match to determine their opponent in the final. This has all the makings of a really heated final.
