Lionel Messi finally broke his Gigi Buffon taboo and has given Barcelona the half-time lead over Juventus, who lost Mattia De Sciglio.
The Bianconeri knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League in the quarter-final, winning 3-0 at home and drawing 0-0 at Camp Nou. They returned here without Claudio Marchisio, Sami Khedira, Mario Mandzukic, Giorgio Chiellini and suspended Juan Cuadrado, while Stephan Lichtsteiner was not on the Champions League list. Max Allegri surprisingly opted for Mattia De Sciglio and Rodrigo Bentancur in their first Juve starts. The Blaugrana gave Ousmane Dembele his first start, having provided an assist on his debut for 22 minutes in Saturday’s 5-0 win over Espanyol.
De Sciglio almost caused a huge upset within six minutes, his snapshot fingertipped round the far post by Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, though no corner was given. Paulo Dybala then went on a rapid counter, but fired straight at the goalkeeper, while Ter Steven beat away a scorcher from Miralem Pjanic.
Gigi Buffon was quick off his line to anticipate Dembele on a long ball over the top, then fingertipped a Luis Suarez strike over on the rebound from Leo Messi’s free kick.
Douglas Costa released Bentancur with a chipped pass, but Jordi Alba decisively charged it down. Dembele was under pressure from Douglas Costa when he fired off target, following a misplaced De Sciglio ball, and the full-back limped off in favour of Stefano Sturaro, requiring a defensive reshuffle.
Messi had never previously scored against Buffon, but he ended that taboo on the stroke of half-time when completing a give-and-go with Suarez on the edge of the area and placing the snooker shot into the far bottom corner, giving SuperGigi no chance.
Barcelona 1-0 Juventus (Half-Time)
Messi 45 (B)
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Pique, Umtiti, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Dembele, Suarez, Messi
Juventus: Buffon; De Sciglio (Sturaro 41), Barzagli, Benatia, Alex Sandro; Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi; Douglas Costa, Higuain, Dybala
Ref: Skomina (SVN)
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