Talking Points From FC Barcelona’s 2-0 Champions League Win Over Juventus

At the Juventus stadium on Wednesday, FC Barcelona beat the Italian Serie A holders by 2-0 in the Champions League.

Here are some of the main talking points from the tie.

A first win for the Blaugrana at said ground

Barca had never won there since its unveiling in 2011/2012, with their last appearance in Turin a 3-0 pummeling in the quarterfinals of the competition in 2017.

Beating the nine-times consecutive domestic kings on their own turf was an achievement in itself, then.

Ronald Koeman got his line up spot on

Many called it ‘weird’ before kick off, with Ousmane Dembele on the right wing and Pedri in central attacking midfield, but it worked. And worked well.

Pedri is Barca’s other teenage pearl

Costing just €5mn, the Tenerife native has skills to pay the bills and a head much older than his tender 17 years. His tricks and flicks are not showboating to impress Koeman and the fans. They always have logic behind them, either to get out of trouble or prolong an attack.

With he and Ansu Fati at the wheel, there is hope for the future.

Ousmane Dembele is growing in confidence

With a pair of goals now in his last two outings on the continent, the Frenchman looks a different player entirely from the shell of a man that suffered against Getafe almost a fortnight ago.

Miralem Pjanic dictated play and made the double pivot approach tick

Picked over Sergio Busquets, he almost committed a grave error when forgetting he no longer played for Juve in the opening minutes and almost set up Dejan Kulusevski.

Clement Lenglet clearing up that mess, though, the Bosnian went on to have a fine evening and showed that two defensive midfielders in Koeman’s system can work.

Frenkie de Jong is an option in central defence

When Ronald Araujo went down injured, the Dutchman dropped to the back line for the second half and did a sterling job filling in. Gerard Pique will return for Alaves on Saturday, but with Koeman evidently possessing little faith in Samuel Umtiti, FdJ can put a shift in if needed and pointed out that he played there as a youngster post-match.

Barcelona need to finish better

If there was one negative to take from this display, it was that Barca need to finish better and could be punished for not doing so later on in this edition of the tournament.

Antoine Griezmann and Messi both came within inches of getting on the scoresheet from open play, and there were 13 chances overall – some of them crystal clear.

Ansu still has a bit to learn

The number 22’s selflessness should be commended. But Koeman was clearly furious when he tried to set up Martin Braithwaite in stoppage time instead of having a go himself at a more or less open goal.

A clean sheet

Still, at least Neto was able to go back to the Catalan capital with a clean slate.