Manchester United 0-1 Juventus - five things we learned: regal centre-backs and repetitive Cristiano Ronaldo
Juventus’ return to Manchester United had been overshadowed by individuals. Cristiano Ronaldo arrived under the cloud of allegation, Jose Mourinho arrived, quite literally, under a hood as he walked from the Lowry Hotel to reach Old Trafford. But it was the team performance of Juventus, even with their eclipsing star, which allowed them to suffocate Mourinho's men.
The Italian side took the lead after 17 minutes and it was Ronaldo who created it, having run in behind Luke Shaw before his cross was blocked into the path of Paolo Dybala who gratefully guided home. The rest of the first half could be described by tennis fans as a doughnut. United barely breaching Juventus' box, short in shots, possession, idea and even hope.
However, the game became frayed in the second but although United came close on numerous occasions, it proved, as so often, impossible to break down a Juventus side in the ascendancy.
Here's five things we learned from the game...
Serie A outspeeds haywire Premier League
The fact that Serie A matches can so often travel with the speed of a crawling centipede compared to the Premier League's haywire has hindered the Turin side on past European travails. Once unable to live with the high presses of Spain’s elite, the unparalleled physicality of the English, instead it was they who had a dynamic domineer of the pitch and overpowered Old Trafford. Mourinho's men were overrun, outpressed and outworked and while Ronaldo and Dybala consistently harangued United's defenders, Bonnuci and Chiellini were always given generous time to match their age before instigating the next wave of attack.
Pogba neutralised by Juve's rampant midfield...
There was a gully between Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba which Paolo Dybala revisited in the first half like a freestyle snowboarder, flashing his way at high speed while knocking bristles from the still ferns either side. An area where there always seemed to be an extra black and white striped shirt overrunning the midfield, which Miralem Pjanic and Rodrigo Bentacour commanded like a one-sided tug-of-war. And it reduced Pogba to paint stripper, corroding into the wall of his own defence, hemmed back and unable to cast influence on the game.
Luke Shaw is much improved but too easily skittled...
It’s been a long time since Luke Shaw visited the Kingston Rotunda in his hometown but he got an all-too-bitter reminded of the town's arcade tonight. Like a pinball machine the Juventus attack, in whichever way it started, was bound to end in one location - his left wing - and too often Shaw was skittled. It was he who was overlapped for the opener, he who left a mouthful of space when marauding forward in the first half which offered up guaranteed opportunities like bowling with the barriers up. He was given a reprieve by Juventus as the game's tide finally turned in the second stanza but there was a clear vulnerability in the much-improved left-back which Juventus had obviously earmarked.
Chiellini and Bonnucci as timeless as Turin's great tourist attractions...
Leonardo Bonucci may have had his promiscuous ears pricked by AC Milan during a regrettable fling last season, but his relationship with Georgio Chiellini is as timeless as the sphinxes, mummies and ancient papyrus of the Museo Egizio in Turin. In the first half, Manchester United only had three touches in Juventus’ box and just a singly shot. It was that central defensive pairing, the two all-seeing turrets, who enforced that. Whether building from the back or hoofing like a regal horse, without them Juventus would have been unable to hold out.
Same old Ronaldo...
Ronaldo showed little sign of being affected by the allegations which accompanied him on his first-class seat from Turin. Nor did the forward flaunt the slightest sign of nerves as he smiled in the tunnel and high-fived Manchester United’s mascots. The reception given to him was slightly muted, after all, on his first return to Old Trafford in 2013 he scored a crucial goal for Real Madrid against his former side. But if the United fans weren’t up for the fanfare, he was.
With his first touch of the ball, he made a mockery of the unsuspecting Marcus Rashford with the cutest of Cruyff turns. And it was he who created the opening goal, darting beyond a stagnant Luke Shaw before crossing to Paolo Dybala. And in the second half his powerful curled finish was only denied by the finest save from one of the world’s finest goalkeepers. It wasn’t a case of what we learned, but that what we always knew remained there. Each biconcave cell in Ronaldo’s body breathes for the big occasion.
