Juventus ease past 10-man Freiburg to head to Europa League quarterfinals

Juventus headed into the second leg of their UEFA Europa League Round of 16 tie against Freiburg on Thursday with a slim 1-0 advantage — and that was entirely their own fault. In the first leg, they should have scored more than just the solitary goal, and realistically Thursday's game shouldn't have been nearly as tense as it was at the start. Heart rates only started to intensify when Wojciech Szczesny was forced into an excellent save early on, and when Dusan Vlahovic had a first-half goal disallowed for offside. A VAR-assisted (and quite properly awarded) penalty for handball, plus a second yellow card for the man who made the infraction, gave Juve an aggregate cushion, and left Freiburg a nigh-on insurmountable task to get back into the tie.