Real Madrid-Juventus: Del Piero Bags a Match Winning Double in Madrid

It was Del Piero’s night. Il Capitano stunned the crowd twice as he scored two against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium—grabbing a win for Juventus, who prior to this evening hadn’t won in the Spanish capital for 46 long years.

First Half

Real Madrid started the first half at a furious tempo—lining up multiple chances through Guti and Sneijder.

Despite the Spaniards early dominance it’s was the visiting side that took the lead through Del Piero in the 17th minute. Il Capitano snatched a stray ball from Guti and ran untouched through several Real defenders before firing a shot that curled in at the near post.

Real defender Ramos had a golden opportunity in the minutes following the goal, but his volley went over the crossbar from four yards.

After a succession of fruitless corners from Real Madrid around the half hour mark the challenges started to get ugly. The referee handed out four bookings in the span of eight minutes—evenly divided between the two teams.

The remaining minutes of the first half was all Real as they pushed forward for a leveller. Mellberg made a vital interception on Drenthe only minutes before the half time whistle blew.

Second Half

The second half started in much the same fashion as the first. Real were trying to find the net and came close through Raul, van Nistelrooy and Drenthe. The frustration became visible from the home side as van Nistelrooy picked up an unnecessary booking for lunging recklessly at Nedved.

Juventus, for obvious reasons, sat deep to guard their lead and were by now playing with a double defensive line-up. The Real players had almost full possession of the ball but were unable to capitalise.

Schuster wasn’t happy with the situation and made his first substitution for the evening 20 minutes into the second half, taking off a visibly irritated Sneijder in favor of Higuain in an effort to the change the game.

One minute after Real’s substitution Sissoko was brought down some 25 yards from Casillas’ goal. Del Piero curled the resulting free-kick into the Spanish international’s right hand corner while the goalkeeper was rooted to the spot.

The Real players were by now showing signs of growing frustration and had lost both the intensity and pace in their game. Schuster threw on van der Vaart and Saviola, instead of van Nistelrooy and Heinze, in a desperate attempt to salvage any points. Schuster’s  Juventus counterpart soon brought on Iaquinta instead of Amauri.

Diarra came extremely close to reducing the defecit in the final minutes of the game and Del Piero was only inches away from making it a hat-trick at the Bernabeu. Ranieri withdrew Il Capitano to rapturous ovations from the crowd as he made way for De Ceglie in the final minute of the game.  

Although Real owned possession of the ball and dominated as well as creating more chances, it was their inability in front of the goal that left them empty handed.

Juventus on the other hand stood firm with a fine performance this evening and their effectiveness in front of the goal made all the difference. The Bianconeri defense was simply outstanding and Del Piero goals a joy to watch as the captain brought out a trick or two as well.

As Real’s Van der Vaart put if after the game: “He’s pretty old, but he’s in the best shape of his life.”

Juventus now top group H with ten points and have, with tonight’s win, secured qualification to the knock-out stages. Real Madrid remain second with six points and will be fighting with Zenit over the other spot. The Russians beat BATE in Belarus and are only two points shy of the Spaniards.