Galatasaray 5 Juventus 2
Tie over already? This tie had goals written all over it from the moment it was drawn a couple of weeks ago and we got exactly what we wanted in a superb end-to-end encounter for the first leg. Gabriel Sara opened the scoring following Kenan Yildiz being dispossessed in his own box to give Gala the lead on 15 minutes, Juve then hit back straight away just a minute later through Teun Koopmeiners to bring the tie level at 1-1, just 15 minutes later Koopmeiners bagged his second with a brilliant finish at the near post to put Juventus in the lead. Just two minutes after Juve’s second Gleison Bremer pulled up with what looked like a hamstring injury to change the game completely for Juventus defensively as Federico Gatti came on. Galatasaray knew they had to start the second half strong and that’s exactly what they did as Noa Lang equalised in the 49th minute to bring the tie to 2-2, then just ten minutes Gala took the lead through a set-piece that came of Davinson Sanchez’s shoulder to put Gala 3-2 up. Things looked like they couldn’t get worse for Juve but they did on the 70th minute as substitute Juan Cabal earned a second yellow card to put Juve down to 10 men twice in the same week. Galatasaray smelt blood and scored two more to probably put the tie to bed barring a miracle in Turin next week, what a disaster for Juventus yet again in the Champions League.
The perfect first leg from Galatasaray. We know just how hard it is to come to this stadium and get a result on a Champions League night and had Juventus managed the game better they might of got something tonight but Galatasaray were superb for most of the game. What I liked most about the performance was the willingness to go on and score more goals after they went 3-2 up when a lot of other teams would have dropped back and tried to hold the advantage going into next week. Whilst he didn’t get on the scoresheet you can see everything that Victor Osimhen brings to this Gala side even when he’s not scoring goals providing two key assists tonight for the 4th and 5th goals to effectively finish the tie. Gabriel Sara was the best player on the pitch in my opinion and dictated that midfield for the whole match creating chance after chance for the attackers to score with himself scoring the first goal of the game, you’d imagine that next week will be perfect for this Gala side to counter attack and get the first goal to most definitely finish the tie.
Another disastrous night in the Champions League for Juventus. These results have seemed far too common for Juventus over the last few seasons going out to the likes of PSV, Villareal, Ajax, Porto, Lyon and the group stages in 2022-2023. It looks like Galatasaray will be getting added to that list barring a miracle next week in Turin in which Juventus need at least 3 goals without response to get to extra-time, things were going so well for Juventus when Koopmeiners put them 1-2 up but their inability to manage games of football at the minute is costing them big time and to let Galatasaray finish the tie in that last 20 minutes will have sparked rage in Spalletti no doubt. You’d think this was the perfect game for Yildiz to showcase his ability in the biggest competition but he didn’t turn up when Juventus really needed him to getting subbed off in the 80th minute after a sub-par performance.
How long will Bremer be out for? It’s no surprise that the recent upturn in Juventus’ form has come since Bremer has returned from injury but it seems like yet again he’ll be out with a long-term injury, Juventus were 1-2 up when he went off and looking relatively comfortable at the back but as soon as he went off you could see the difference between him and Gatti and I have no doubts Galatasaray wouldn’t have scored 5 goals if Bremer was on the pitch for 90 minutes. Juve’s defence was a shambles for the rest of the game giving Gala chance after chance to close the game out with Juan Cabal having an absolute nightmare as soon as he came on getting two yellows in the space of 10 minutes to put Juve down to 10 men, these are supposed to be the replacements for Bremer at centre-back and quite clearly they aren’t up to the task.
Can Juventus turn it around next week? The answer is probably no but they have to at least try and replicate what only a few teams have ever managed to do in turning around a 3 goal deficit in the second leg in the Champions League, the four teams to have done it before are Deportivo La Coruna in 2003-2004, Barcelona in 2016-2017, Roma in 2017-2018 and Liverpool in 2018-2019 with only two of those ties winning outright on the score with the other two going through on away goals so you can see just how rare it is to overturn a deficit as big as the one Juventus need to. They quite simply have to score the first goal and score it early to try and unsettle a Galatasaray side which will defend for their lives to hold the lead, all Gala have to do next week is score and the tie is over in my opinion which I’d imagine they will do seeing as they scored 5 tonight, I suppose we’ll wait and see.