Alvaro Morata opened the scoring on the stroke of halftime and Simone Zaza hit his maiden UEFA Champions League goal at the death as Juventus dominated a listless Sevilla 2-0 to go top of Group D on Wednesday.
Juventus, last season’s beaten finalists, welcomed Unai Emery’s Europa League champions to Turin looking to prove that the poor domestic form that has seen them slump to 15th in Serie A is simply a blip.
By the end of a completely one-sided encounter, it became apparent that Sevilla’s own domestic woes are likely to pose a much bigger threat for them this season.
Photo: EPA
Emery tried to put a positive spin on his side’s horror show.
“Juventus were last season’s beaten finalists and a side with top quality players, so we expected this to be a tough encounter,” Emery said. “We still have to work on a lot of things, but I regard tonight’s performance as positive given the amount of players I had out injured.”
Bizarrely, Juventus, 2-1 winners at Manchester City, are now top of the group with more points from two Champions League games than they have earned in six Serie A outings.
“The big difference is we have six points from the Champions League and five from Serie A,” Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri said when asked to explained his side’s ability to rise to the occasion in Europe.
After applauding his side’s “great game,” Allegri praised Sami Khedira’s impressive display after the German World Cup winner returned to action after two months on the sidelines.
“He’s a world class player, tonight he did well, showed his qualities and his skills. I’m very happy for him,” Allegri said.
After just 30 seconds Paul Pogba spurned a great chance for the hosts when he mishit Morata’s chip over a thankful Sergio Rico’s crossbar.
If fans thought it was a flash in the pan, they would be soon mistaken. Juventus settled quickly and were in complete command, annulling the threat of the listless Spanish side as they went about laying the foundations for Morata’s opener four minutes from the interval.
Brazilian Hernanes and Paulo Dybala, with a great curling effort, came close early on, while Khedira, making his first appearance since hobbling off 25 minutes into a friendly with Olympique de Marseille, was making a great impression on the 32,908 spectators.
The German was given rousing applause when he deftly chested down a long ball on the left to set up Dybala, but the Argentine wasted the opportunity in front of goal.
Juventus finally broke the deadlock on 41 minutes when Morata rose above the Sevilla defense to meet Juan Cuadrado’s delivery from the right and beat Rico down low at his far post.
It was Morata’s second goal in the competition this season after his late winner at Manchester City.
“I’m happy for my goal, but more happy about our win,” the Spaniard said.
Juve resumed where they had left off after the interval and created two quick chances immediately after the restart, although Dybala’s deflected effort was blocked by Rico’s legs and Pogba fired a bicycle-kick well over the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area.
Cuadrado’s movement and pace was too much for French leftback Benoit Tremoulinas and on 64 minutes the on-loan Chelsea forward skipped by two players to set up Patrice Evra deep on the left, but the Frenchman’s low delivery for Dybala was deflected out.
Emery made two quick substitutions, Ciro Immobile replacing Kevin Gameiro and Vicente Iborra coming on for Steven N’Zonzi, although the changes made little difference.
Sevilla spent the next 10 minutes ball-watching as Juventus passed around at will, until Cuadrado broke the monotony with a vicious drive from outside the area that Rico did well to block.
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri replaced Morata with Zaza in the dying minutes and the Italy international seized his chance in style.
Dybala did well to hold off his markers to send the Italian on a long run that ended with his angled strike beating Rico down low on 87 minutes.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but