Soon, the match began.
In Turin, more than 40,000 spectators poured into the Juventus Stadium today.
With the support of their fans, the Zebras seized the initiative from the start.
The once-glorious "Seven Sisters" of Serie A, although their reputation had plummeted due to the Calciopoli scandal, causing countless stars to flee, and even now, few stars are willing to play in Serie A because it has become a match-fixing league in the eyes of the fans.
However, on the Champions League stage, Serie A has never lacked competitive teams.
Juventus spending a hundred million to buy a thirty-something CR7 last summer showed their ambition was as clear as day.
If they were eliminated in the first round, they would become the laughingstock of all of Europe.
As the match began, Juventus immediately showed their strong desire to win.
They deployed a 3-4-3 three-at-the-back formation today.
And Simeone's Atlético, as expected, chose to sit deep from the start.
This was evident from the possession stats and the number of dangerous attacks.
In the opening 20 minutes, Juventus's possession rate reached 65%. The number of dangerous attacks was 28 to 10, and the number of shots was 6 to 0.
Juventus's fierce offense made Simeone wave his players back in the technical area time and time again.
Today, Simeone had deployed a 4-4-2 formation, but even their star player, Griezmann, was in the backfield defending.
Atlético was defending their advantage with all their might.
However, Atlético's deep defense did not achieve the expected effect.
In the 27th minute of the match, Juventus's Federico Bernardeschi sent a cross from the wing to the back post.
The Atlético and Juventus players were jostling in the box, but unexpectedly, CR7 suddenly burst out from the crowd, leaped high, and smashed the ball into the Atlético goal with his forehead.
1:0!
The aggregate score was 1:2!
Juventus had pulled one back, trailing by one goal on aggregate.
This goal completely ignited the passion of the home fans, giving them hope of advancing.
On the slow-motion replay, CR7's header was almost like he was flying. His freakish hang time left the Atlético defenders helpless.
Oblak had already sensed the danger and had covered the angle in advance, but CR7's header still broke through.
Tendou asked himself, his hang time and jumping ability were no weaker than CR7's, but in terms of heading technique, he was inferior to the President.
After conceding, Atlético was even more unwilling to attack, continuing to sit back in their own half and park the bus.
Juventus's fierce attacks were fruitless, and the two sides went into the locker rooms with a score of 1:0.
In the second half, in the 49th minute, it was another scramble in the Atlético box.
Cancelo's powerful shot was blocked by Oblak, and CR7 followed up with a rebound.
Although the ball was heroically saved by the Atlético goalkeeper, Oblak, Cristiano Ronaldo immediately raised his hand to signal that the ball had already crossed the line.
After communicating with the VAR team, the head referee announced that the goal was valid.
With this, CR7 had completed a brace.
At this moment, a bad premonition suddenly surged in the hearts of the Atlético fans and Simeone.
Before Simeone's tenure, Atlético was just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill team.
It was Simeone's transformation that had injected an iron-blooded spirit into them, allowing Atlético to be reborn.
But in Atlético's strongest years, they were defeated time and time again by CR7 and Real Madrid.
This Portuguese man had almost become their nightmare.
Now, CR7 had parted ways with Real Madrid, but this nightmare seemed to be continuing.
So far, Juventus had already set many records.
One must know that before this match, Simeone's Atlético had an impressive unbeaten record of 5 wins and 2 draws against Serie A teams, and the number of goals conceded was a chilling 1.
But in this match, CR7 had already scored 2 goals, which was more than the total number of goals that any Serie A team had scored against Simeone's Atlético.
Simeone and the Atlético players were already starting to panic.
Fortunately, Simeone had enough prestige in this team. He constantly pressed his hands down, telling the players to calm down.
Thus, the two sides began to engage in an attacking and defensive drill on the field.
Juventus failed to complete the comeback, and Atlético also stabilized their nerves.
Everything seemed to be heading towards extra time.
However, the turning point of the match occurred in the 84th minute.
On a Juventus counter-attacking opportunity, Federico Bernardeschi received a pass in the midfield and distributed it to the wing.
The latter, with the ball, broke into the Atlético box on the left and was pushed down by Correa.
TWEEET!
The whistle blew, and the referee pointed to the penalty spot.
Juventus had won a penalty.
In an instant, the entire stadium erupted. The Atlético fans who had traveled with the team, their faces no longer showed the excitement from before the match.
Their expressions were solemn, incredulous, sad, apprehensive, numb...
Simeone wiped his face forcefully, bent over, and stared at the Portuguese man on the field...
And then, CR7 personally took the penalty and converted it with ease!
3:0!
Juventus, at home, had completed an unbelievable comeback.
CR7 had once again completed a hat-trick against the Mattress Makers.
"It's over," Salah announced Atlético's death sentence.
Football fans all over the world knew what would happen when an Italian team took the lead.
They would use a suffocating defense to maintain their lead until the end of the match.
What's more, there was not much time left for Atlético.
TWEEET~
When the referee blew the final whistle, the 3:2 score on the scoreboard broke the hearts of the Atlético people.
Atlético had launched a fierce counter-attack in the final moments but was still unable to score, losing to Juventus at their home ground.
At the moment the match ended, CR7 also made the same celebratory gesture as Simeone.
At the Juventus home ground, under the watchful eyes of the entire world, he made the indecent "thrusting" gesture.
Simeone left the field with a dark face.
"Hat-trick! CR7 leads Juventus to a comeback victory!"
"An unbelievable comeback!"
"This is the man that Real Madrid gave up!"
"Real Madrid got 100 million and was eliminated in the first knockout round. Juventus spent 100 million and got a comeback."
"..."
As expected, after the match, all of Europe was filled with news about Juventus and CR7.
"Don't think too much about it. Sooner or later, you'll be like him," Henderson said, seeing that Tendou and Arnold were a bit sour.
Their team had invited Bayern for a 7-Up, but it wasn't as big of a story as Real Madrid being eliminated and CR7's hat-trick.
In this day and age, no one in the world can compare to Noel and CR7 in terms of media traffic.
"If only we could draw Juventus," Arnold still felt unhappy, wishing they could face Juventus in the next round.
"If it were me, I'd rather play Porto," Tendou shrugged his shoulders.
No matter how you looked at it, among the teams that had advanced to the quarterfinals, Porto and Ajax were the easiest to play against.
"TJ is right. I hope our draw luck is a bit better. We have to go further," Mané said.
With the league pressure being so great, for Liverpool, it would be best to draw one of the two teams from outside the top five leagues, Ajax or Porto.
...
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