They say the best form of defence is attack – at Wanda Metropolitano it was the other way round as titanic centre-backs Jose Gimenez and Diego Godin gave Atletico Madrid a huge 2-0 advantage in their Champions League round-of-16 first-leg clash with Juventus.
After a nip-and-tuck first half, Atleti started to turn the screw in the second and the visitors were unlucky to see a Alvaro Morata header ruled out after consultation with VAR adjudged Giorgio Chiellini was pushed in the build-up.
That wouldn’t deter the hosts, as Gimenez scored from a corner before Godin put the icing on the cake with a neat finish. Our Atleti ratings are below…
JUVENTUS (4-3-3)
Wojciech Szczesny – Grew a few inches in stature to tip Griezmann chance onto crossbar. Blameless for goals 7
Mattia De Sciglio – Looked nervy under pressure from Costa, although VAR was right to overturn penalty 5
Leonardo Bonucci – Struggled with the hosts’ physicality and his usual raking balls from defence were missing 5
Giorgio Chiellini – Lost aerial battle that led to big Costa chance, and lucky referee adjudged he was pushed by Morata 4
Alex Sandro – Made four fouls in a sloppy performance, picked up a yellow card which rules him out of the second leg 5
Rodrigo Bentancur – A normally measured passer, Bentancur was hassled all night and looked frankly out of his depth 4
Miralem Pjanic – Was the most composed of Juve’s midfield trio, his incisive passing suffered for lack of support 6
Blaise Matuidi – Ran around generally aimlessly, whereas his counterparts were disciplined and it showed 4
Paulo Dybala – Skirted around the surfaces of the action. Aside from a few successful dribbles we didn’t see much of him 5
Mario Mandzukic – Wasn’t much for him to feed off as Juve’s midfield got sucked under by swarming Atleti 5
Cristiano Ronaldo – One shot in anger, many more frustrating moments followed as he was held at bay by Juanfran and Co 5
SUBSTITUTES
Emre Can (73′) – Was thrown to the wolves and could do nothing to wrest back control from the home side 5
Federico Bernardeschi (80′) – Well-struck shot from edge of area was just about best chance Juve had to claw back a goal N/A
Joao Cancelo (84′) – Could supply width and pace, brought on far too late to affect the game. N/A
